3 out of 30 proposals from Femifesto tackled by Maltese government

Mar 8 2023

The Malta Women’s Lobby (MWL) revealed during a press conference yesterday that, out of around 30 proposals issued in 2022 via the FEMIFfesto, only 3 were seriously tackled by Malta’s government.

The update to the proposal list for International Women’s Day 2023 revealed that the proposals were sent to all political parties and were also presented to newly appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms and Equality Rebecca Buttigieg.

Out of 30 proposals, only the following 3 were implemented:

First was the call to introduce murder ‘with femicidal intent’ which allows the judges to consider the highest form of punishment (life imprisonment) whilst removing the argument of ‘crime of passion’ as a defence in such cases.

Second was the increase in paternity leave from 1 to 10 days and finally was the launch of a Gender Equality and Gender Mainstreaming Strategy and Action Plan 2022-2027. ‘This means that the rest were ignored.’

Among the other proposals which the MWL states were ignored are:

Ensuring that migrant mothers housed in open centres are well supported with childcare services in order to allow them the possibility to enter the labour market.
Removing VAT on sanitary products and provide free contraception.
Introducing an office to settle cases related to equality issues between men and women.
Introducing the Equality Model which criminalises the buyers, and reduces the demand for trafficked women and girls.
Giving more attention and teacher training on adopting gender equality and gender-neutral approaches.
New quotas, incentives and sanctions on private sector to ensure at least 30% of board members are women or from least represented gender.

Read full document here.

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World’s most premature twins celebrate 1st birthday

Mar 8 2023

Twins Adiah and Adrial, the world’s most prematurely born babies, were born 126 days early, overtaking the previous record of 125 days set in 2018.

Born in Ontario, Canada, the twins survived their highly premature birth, given that a full-term pregnancy is usually 40 weeks. This would make these twins around 18 weeks premature.

During her second day of labour – around 21 weeks and six days into her pregnancy – Shakina Rajendram was told that if they were born even a few minutes before 22 weeks, they would not be able to survive.

With a 0% survival chance given by doctors, the twins have now reached their 1st birthday and are reportedly doing just fine.

Most hospitals do not attempt to save children born before 24 to 26 weeks, but the parents were able to move to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto which boasts a specialist neonatal intensive care unit.

The twins survived despite serious medical issues early on, with their mother saying that they watched their babies almost die in front of their eyes many times.

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€15,000 fine for student caught etching letters on Ġgantija monument

Mar 8 2023

Heritage Malta revealed, and ‘unreservedly condemned’, an act of vandalism perpetrated by an 18-year-old Italian student which saw him etch letters on a main Ġgantija Neolithic monument.

The student was caught in the act by a security officer and resulted in police being summoned to the site.

The youth was arraigned during an urgent Gozo session on Monday, where he admitted to the charges brought against him.

He was sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended for four years, which is the maximum period permitted by law, and fined €15,000.

Heritage Malta issued a statement, saying that they have ‘invested considerably over the past months in the enhancement of security at its museums and sites’ and that they are satisfied with the timely intervention of the security officer.

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Mater Dei emergency patients waited average of 3 hours in February

Mar 8 2023

Responding to a parliamentary question posed by Opposition MP Ian Vassallo, Health Minister Chris Fearne revealed that the average patient at Mater Dei’s accident and emergency department waited around three hours to bee seen by a doctor.

Fearne informed parliament that there was an average three hour waiting time between a patient being registered at the department and a doctor attending to them.

The statistic was derived from the experience of 5,432 patients who reported to the emergency department between 1st and 21st of February.

The three hour waiting period was not always the case as anyone who reports to the A&E undergo triage – a process which lets medical staff determine how urgent their medical condition is.

Those with urgent care are given priority, taking medical staff an average of 19 minutes to carry out triage on patients after they were registered.

Vassallo also asked the Health Minister which areas of Mater Dei had to be converted into temporary wards in February and how many beds were placed in these areas.

The Deputy Prime Minister responded saying that there were three such instances in February. ITU 6 was opened for 9 patients on February 6th, ITU 3 was opened for 6 patients on February 20th and an endoscopy day care unit was opened for 12 patients on February 20th as well.

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