SURVEY: How Should We Best Exercise Our Right To Protest In Malta?
The right to peaceful protest lies at the core of any democracy, allowing citizens to express their views outside of voting ballots.
Yet, people tend to be divided on what works best to protest – and how far one should go when it comes to taking action. This survey is looking to get your perspective!
Protests can come in many forms, from simply sitting down outside of your Parliament with a sign to more disruptive actions such as physically blocking work from happening.
In Malta, we’ve seen protests rise against government corruption in the wake of the Panama papers, protests in reaction to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and a slew of protests against the rampant construction taking place across the island.
In Europe, our right to peacefully protest is a fundamental freedom under Article 12 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Yet taking action goes beyond just demonstrations out in the streets.
(function() { var qs,js,q,s,d=document, gi=d.getElementById, ce=d.createElement, gt=d.getElementsByTagName, id=”typef_orm”, b=”https://embed.typeform.com/”; if(!gi.call(d,id)) { js=ce.call(d,”script”); js.id=id; js.src=b+”embed.js”; q=gt.call(d,”script”)[0]; q.parentNode.insertBefore(js,q) } })()
Boycotting a product, event or person is perhaps one of the most common types of protest while using your right to vote for a third party or independent candidate is also equally as effective as boycotting.
Another form of protest comes in the form of legal action, ranging from appealing a case to opening a legal challenge and can span everything from political party broadcasting to challenging laws detrimental to the environment – and everything in-between.
Without the right to protest, we would not be living in a democracy. Instead, our freedoms would be slowly stripped away while being unable to rightly do anything in order to create pressure to force a change.
What many need to remember is that protesting peacefully is healthy and important in order to express one’s opinions and exert your freedom, but it is equally important for us to understand what should and shouldn’t be done when taking action.
Share this with someone who needs to fill this survey!
READ NEXT: Malta Criminalising Drug Addicts Is One Of The Biggest Failures Of Our Justice System
