Malta’s increased awareness of disabled people's sexual and romantic relationships has been flagged as a “promising practice” by the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights – FRA.

In its annual report published on Tuesday, FRA says that according to its research, there is lack of attention to people with disabilities’ relationships, mentioning only two efforts that have attempted to address this issue – one in Malta, the other in the Czech Republic. 

Last year, the Commissioner for the Rights of People with Disabilities broke the silence around sex and disability, with Oliver Scicluna kicking off a national discussion on intimate relationships.

He had insisted with The Sunday Times of Malta that social barriers to having sex and healthy relationships were painful to several people with a disability, some of whom might also be resorting to dangerous or illicit means to fulfil these needs.

Watch: 'Dating a disabled man? Why don't you find a proper partner?'

The commission conducted a quantitative survey, looking into whether Malta was living up to its obligations under the UN’s Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and eventually held a conference on the topic of sexuality.

Read: Should disabled be helped to have paid sex?

In FRA’s 2018 report Malta also features when it comes to rule of law and justice challenges.

A promising practice

Despite efforts by the European Union and other international actors, these challenges posed growing concerns in 2017, triggering the first-ever commission proposal to the Council to adopt a decision under Article 7 – an infringement procedure used against member countries that commit fundamental rights violations.

FRA flagged the call to look into the rule of law situation in the area of access to justice in Bulgaria, Malta and Romania.

In the case of Malta, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the commission to start dialogues on the functioning of the rule of law, due to the specific circumstances of the investigation into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and the country’s worsening track record in prosecuting financial crimes.

Meanwhile, this year’s report also shed light on racism and xenophobia, as migrants and minority ethnic groups continued to face widespread discrimination, harassment and discriminatory profiling across the European Union.

According to one of the agency’s surveys, one in four respondents experienced at least one form of hate-motivated harassment.

Second-generation immigrants experience more hate motivated harassment than first-generation immigrants (32 per cent vs 21 per cent), and are also more likely to experience recurrent incidents.

Half of them experienced at least six incidents of hate-motivated harassment in the 12 months preceding the survey.

The findings also show that as many as 90 per cent of incidents of hate-motivated harassment and 72 per cent of hate-motivated violence are never reported.

Malta was one of the three countries (together with Sweden and Finland) where at least 50 per cent of respondents with sub-Saharan African background experienced harassment six times or more in 12 months, due to their ethnic or immigrant background.

Aditus Foundation is the national researcher contracted by FRA.

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