Aditus Foundation

The idea to establish aditus foundation was born in 2009. Their current Director (Neil) had just left his position as Head of the UNHCR Office in Malta in order to take a personal break and to rethink his personal and professional future. The idea was to remain in the national human rights sector, to provide a valid and sustainable contribution and to avoid replicating the work being done by other organisations. Malta’s NGO landscape was, and largely remains, one dominated by organisations providing extremely valuable and needed services to various sectors within the community. Human rights advocacy at the level of targeting laws and policies was limited to a small number of NGOs highly specialised in their respective fields. Within this context, aditus foundation’s founders (Neil Falzon, Nicola Mallia and Carla Camilleri) wanted the organisation to focus almost exclusively on advocacy, on constantly pushing the bar higher and higher in order to achieve stronger and more effective human rights protection for all persons in Malta. They are inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and as lawyers are wholly committed to removing those obstacles preventing anyone from accessing and enjoying their fundamental human rights. After a period of operating from Neil’s living-room with a handful of excited and eager volunteers, aditus foundation was formally registered with the Malta Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations in March 2011. Their emphasis remains advocacy, achieved through our three activity groups: Monitor, Report, Act.