Blessed Is He Who Considers the Human Rights Paradigm: Maltese Aid between Charity and Human Rights and between Catholicism and Secularism

Malta became a donor country with European Union membership in 2004. Maltese organizations (most prominently — but not solely — those linked to the Catholic Church) had, however, been active in development overseas long before that date. This essay offers the first systematic, empirically grounded account of Maltese governmental and nongovernmental aid, based on official and unofficial statistical information on official development assistance levels and distribution; a database compiled by the authors covering nongovernmental Maltese development organizations; and an analysis of a sample of government-and nongovernment-funded projects. The essay analyzes the empirical material based on the dichotomy of charity-based versus human-rights-based development and examines how these two development paradigms overlap with — and differ from — the Catholic/secular divide within the Maltese aid landscape.