Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Ċensu Galea has presided over the awards ceremony of this year's Malta Model United Nations' Model (MaltMUN) Society Conference held at the House of Representatives between 9 and 11 September 2016. The theme of this year's Annual Conference was 'State of Terror: Keeping Citizens Safe in a Terrorised World'.
Ċensu Galea welcomed the society's initiative and commitment to be a leading organisation in promoting greater participation and engagement by young professionals in UN-focused conferences and competitions, public-speaking, debating and diplomacy.
Participants addressed terrorism and closely analysed the phenomenon from six different perspectives. The three Committees tackled issues related to: neutrality and military intervention, financing of non-state actors and a five-year review of the Biological Weapons Convention, protection of world heritage sites and anti-terrorism educational programmes targeting youth radicalization. The MaltMUN Society identified the importance and centrality of a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach integrating in their programme various inter-related elements directly or indirectly linked to terrorism.
The Deputy Speaker highlighted the strategic role played by national parliaments in debating, drafting and enacting legislative measures that counter-terrorism in concrete and tangible ways.
Speaking on changes to the local legislation, he recalled amendments to various laws relating to the prevention of money laundering and the funding of terrorism, enacted by the Maltese Parliament on 20 February 2015.
"Furthermore, Malta is also host to a number of regional and international organizations specifically addressing terrorism and having as their core purpose that of bringing closer parliamentarians, experts and professionals from the field. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean and the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law provide the region with an important platform for strengthened parliamentary diplomacy and closer professional cooperation on issues of common concern," a statement read.
The Deputy Speaker called on the MaltMUN participants to recognize and highlight the greatly important paradigm of finding the right equilibrium between tightened security and surveillance measures, and respect and safeguard of freedoms and rights. Therefore, practitioners need to ensure that any legislative and political progress geared to counter-terrorism is conducted within a human rights and rule of law framework.