“More than one in ten respondents claimed that they had been subjected to some form of violence due to their sexual orientation. Half of respondents claimed that they had experienced some sort of harassment… in some cases the perpetrators where family members, or worse still, members of the police corps, whose duty it is to protect every citizen from such degrading treatment. A considerable number of cases involving bullying in schools were also reported…”

These were the findings of a survey on sexual orientation discrimination in Malta that was carried out by the Malta Gay Rights Movement in 2002. Six years on, sexual orientation discrimination remains a cause for concern, particularly as there are no laws barring sexual orientation discrimination in Malta, except for provisions in employment legislation that have been introduced since 2003 to comply with an EU directive.

2007 was the European Year of Equal Opportunities for all. This brought equality and non-discrimination issues to the forefront of the European agenda. Within the next couple of months, the fate of an EU directive protecting against discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation and religion/belief in all areas of life will be decided upon by the European Commission and the European Council.

At the moment, there are strong signs that this directive will not include sexual orientation, age and religion/belief. ILGA-Europe is presently running a campaign to ensure that a comprehensive new EU anti-discrimination directive which protects against discrimination on all grounds and in all areas of life is proposed and adopted.

This would eliminate the hierarchy of rights and protections that currently exists in EU law:

• race and ethnicity: discrimination is banned in all areas of life
• sex: discrimination is banned in employment and in access to goods and services
• sexual orientation, age, disability, religion and belief: discrimination is banned only in employment

In the run-up to the General Elections of last March, MGRM presented a petition to all political parties calling for legal protection against discrimination in the delivery of goods and services on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and the formal extension of the remit of the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality to cater for the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, among other things. Back then, the Malta Labour Party declared itself in favour of introducing legislation to this effect, while the Nationalist Party – now in government – said that it would support an EU directive on this though it did not commit itself to introducing such legislation in the absence of an EU directive. Both parties stated that they would extend the remit of the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality to cater for the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. 

MGRM had also requested in its petition the inclusion of an article in the Criminal Code regarding homophobic and transphobic violence, and a clear strategy addressing homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools. While in principle all parties declared themselves against violence and bullying, we are a long way from a clear strategy to address such bullying in educational institutions, let alone making amendments to the Criminal Code. Under Maltese Criminal Law, only race and religion are considered as aggravating factors in violent criminal acts – a recent development dated August 2006, which will hopefully pave the way for other amendments to address hate crimes. The authorities do not generally report on bias motivations in violent common crimes, which makes it virtually impossible to gauge the prevalence of hate crimes in Malta, including those which are of a homophobic or transphobic nature.

In view of all this, MGRM is once again embarking on a project to assess the extent of LGBT discrimination in Malta, with special emphasis on the incidence and consequences of hate crimes. The survey is being funded by ILGA-Europe and will be available online. MGRM will also be conducting a number of one-to-one interviews in gay venues, particularly for those who do not have Internet access. The results of this survey will be published in a report together with policy recommendations for improving the social situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in our country. The report will also be submitted to the Government, Members of Parliament and the media. It may also be used at European level in presenting information to the Council of Europe and European Union.

MGRM encourages all LGBT persons to look out for this survey, which will be available on our website from May to July 2008, and to complete it. Your participation will be a valuable contribution to the work of MGRM in combating discrimination and addressing hate crimes in Malta and at the European level through ILGA-Europe.