Speech by the Parliamentary Ombudsman during the opening of the art exhibition 'Arts for Rights'

Speech by the Parliamentary Ombudsman during the opening of the art exhibition 'Arts for Rights'

Published October 23, 2025

Hon Mr Speaker
Excellencies
Colleagues
Distinguished Guests

The House of Representatives of Malta, the highest institution of the State.  

Hon Mr Speaker I thank you for the support which you consistently give the Office of the Ombudsman.

I thank you for hosting this evening`s event that is part of the celebrations marking the 30 years of the founding in Malta of the Office of the Ombudsman.

We are here to bear witness to the determination  of 21 students attending the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology in favour of the promotion and observance of freedom and justice. This medium sets the stage for helping young people to engage effectively on human rights matters. No themes were off-limits.  Students were free to interpret human-rights themes in their own way and encouraged to be expressive in their work. Rights are not abstract concepts for lawyers or politicians alone, but living values that young citizens should uphold. 

I thank them all.

I extend my gratitude to the principal and lecturers of the MCAST Institute for Creative Arts not only for giving the students the opportunity to be socially proactive, not only for the guidance they gave the students throughout the project, but also for the warm welcome I received when I visited the students in the course of execution of the project.   

The paintings bear clear and strong themes because art challenges and inspires. They are on display to admire and, why not, to question.  Rest assured that you will receive from the students straight answers similar to the questions I put to them during my visit.  Each work with its bold, symbolic or abstract interpretations explores the wide territory of human rights with feeling and emotion, a reflection of what we witness around us, where feeling has been replaced by cruelty and despair.  
This is not the classical exhibition by professional artists.  Nothing of the sort.  It is an attempt to raise awareness and shake the conscience of people of  goodwill in favour of the deprived and the forgotten.

With the kind permission of the Hon Mr. Speaker, the  exhibition will remain open even for public viewing until the 14 November 2025.

Thank you.