In the past three years, Sonia Camilleri had become a household name, ever since she took up the post as the first Commissioner for Children. During her tenure, she has worked hard to increase awareness on children’s rights and to ensure these rights are protected.

That Ms Camilleri was not totally happy with the way things were going was no secret, because the Commissioner for Children herself had on several occasions pointed out that her office wanted to do more but could not. Her calls for amendments to the law to make it more consonant with today’s needs went unheeded. She also complained that a lack of resources limited the work that her office would have liked to do.

Towards the end of her three-year term, Ms Camilleri took the decision to inform the Office of the Prime Minister and the Family and Social Affairs Ministry that she was not interested in seeking another term in office.

Hers was a bold decision. Rather than tacitly accepting the shortcomings she herself spoke about and go on with her job notwithstanding, she opted to send out what she believes is a strong message to the government that, while the setting up of the Commissioner for Children’s office was a step in the right direction, the office is not functioning as well as it should be and that changes need to be made to give it a stronger position.

In comments to the media, Ms Camilleri insisted that the law should be changed to give the office the independence it needs to fulfil its mission better. For her part, Minister Dolores Cristina replied that such autonomy was always respected.

Ms Camilleri’s decision to call it quits is a strong message to the government that it cannot expect entities to function to the best of their abilities if their work is curtailed through, in Ms Camilleri’s opinion, lack of resources and lack of autonomy.

Ms Camilleri may be right or wrong in her interpretation – we are not in a position to know – but she was surely in the best position to understand the difficulties that she had to face every day in the running of her office. And therefore her concerns – which she made public long before she chose to not seek a second term – should have been given much more attention by the authorities concerned.

Mrs Cristina has said that Ms Camilleri’s proposals were taken on board when they were deemed appropriate, but it is also clear from the way the commissioner spoke, that this was not enough to improve the situation.

Her choice not to seek a second term has now put the pressure on the government, especially the Family and Social Policy Ministry, to find a suitable replacement.

Nearly four months have passed since Ms Camilleri informed the government of her decision, but no substitute has as yet been found. Ms Camilleri is carrying on with her work until such a replacement is found.

Whoever that may be will have a hard time to fill in the void that will be left by Ms Camilleri who, over three years, carried out her job with dedication, charisma and attention to detail. With what can be described as quiet forcefulness, Ms Camilleri immediately put her office on a sound footing and continued to establish it as an entity that does sterling work in an area that is dear to one and all – our children.

It is a real pity that the differences that seem to exist between her ideas of how the office should be run and the way the government intends it to function have led to her decision to leave.