Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/702975
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post WEDNESDAY • 13 JULY 2016 • ISSUE 477 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY PG 9 • Editorial Trans inmates claim degrading treatment in constitutional case filed against prisons, minister MATTHEW VELLA TRANSGENDER prisoners are being subjected to sexual harass- ment, and sometimes violent sexual abuse, by male prisoners as they are faced with a quandary of being un- able to move into the female prison- ers' block without losing their right to an income. Seven women in the phase of tran- sition filed a constitutional case against the director of prisons and the home affairs minister, after they were faced with no choice but to stay inside the men's prison block to ensure they could work and finance hormone treatment. They claim their human rights are being breached, namely their freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punish- ment, and their right to respect for private and family life. They request that they be com- pensated for damages, and be given the necessary remedy to stop the breach of their fundamental rights. Most of these inmates were im- prisoned before the introduction of Malta's gender identity law in 2015, which means they were imprisoned along with male inmates because their identity cards listed their gen- der as male. In 2015, three of the women – Racquela Spiteri, Frances Scerri and Michelle Falzon – exercised their right under the new law to change their gender to female; two other women, Kevin Grech and Natal Bonello are in the process of chang- ing gender identity, while two for- eign inmates, Portuguese national Reuben dos Santos Crisostomo and Panamanian Hector Antonio Montenegro Martinez cannot avail themselves of the law. Finally in December 2015, Spiteri, Scerri, Bonello and Crisostomo were given the option of moving into the female section – Falzon had by then been re- leased from jail. But the inmates were also denied the right to continue in the jobs they had already undertaken while imprisoned in the males' section, which meant they would lose an income necessary for them to pur- chase hormone treatment. "The inmates identify themselves as women, not only internally but also externally, in the way they present themselves to their fam- ily, friends, and all of society, with long hair styled in a feminine way, make-up, breast enlargement, de- pilation of body hair, dress style, as well as body modification with the use of breast surgery and the tak- ing of female hormones," lawyers Cedric Mifsud and Neil Falzon, di- rector of human rights foundation Aditus, said. PAGE 5 Court upholds injunction preventing pilot union strikes MATTHEW VELLA A court has provisionally upheld a warrant of prohibitory injunc- tion filed by Air Malta against pi- lots union ALPA, to prevent any industrial action by the union that could impede the company's operations, financial position or affect ongoing negotiations be- tween the national carrier and the union. The case will be heard on 22 July. Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis has said that he would do everything he could to safeguard the national airline and the ongoing negotiations with prospective strategic part- ners. He said the injunction was "both legal and symbolic," in that it was a sign that the government would "defend Air Malta in every possible way, from both the legal and the commercial aspect." Air Malta and a team, ap- pointed by the minister and led by President Emeritus George Abela, would continue its discus- sions with the workers with the aim of finding a reasonable so- lution that is acceptable to both parties. PAGE 5 352 PEOPLE SAVED BY RESCUERS, FOUR BODIES RECOVERED FROM RICKETY BOAT. MIRIAM DALLI REPORTS FROM ABOARD THE MIGRANT OFFSHORE AID STATION'S TOPAZ RESPONDER • PAGE 7