Our story

Our Story

In 2010, a small group of like-minded people met to establish a Humanist association in Malta, knowing that, while local culture is heavily influenced by the islands’ long religious history, there are those who do not hold religious views. The Malta Humanist Association, now known as Humanists Malta, was set up in a meeting of founding members Ramon Casha, James Debono, Philip Manduca, Raphael Vassallo and Godfrey Vella on 7 th April 2010. We were officially founded as an NGO in 2011, and worked for a number of years under our late Chair, Ramon Casha.
We are a secularist organisation, calling for the separation of church and state to ensure equal treatment, tolerance and inclusivity for all, championing reason-based morality. We fully support freedom of thought, religion and belief, and all internationally recognised human rights. While we do not believe in any deity, we respect those with theistic beliefs; we may differ about religion but not, in many cases, about other fundamental values.

We were a strong voice during the divorce campaign; supported marriage equality, availability of the Morning After Pill, and cremation; contributed to the debate on the teaching of Ethics in schools (still, sadly, not fully implemented); support women’s and LGBTI+ rights, and bodily autonomy – in relation to both a woman’s right to choose and the right to die, and the donation of bodies for medical research.
We are a member of the Voice for Choice coalition, and endorse the work of other NGOs working on such as human rights, sex education and sexual health services, LGBTI+ rights, and Malta’s treatment of migrants.
Since 2015 we have offered the services of trained humanist celebrants for secular, personal, ceremonies – weddings, funerals or memorials, baby-namings and coming of age. By November 2022, our celebrants had conducted more than 220 such ceremonies. When, in 2017, we lost Ramon Casha, one of our strongest voices, we set up a scholarship fund in his name, in discussion with his next of kin, to be used in a secular cause close to his heart. We have financed, or committed to finance, educational courses for 4 migrant women from this fund. Read more here.
In the 2021 State of the Nation survey, 7% of respondents did not believe in God, and 40% did not agree that religion is important to them. If these figures could be extrapolated to the current population of Malta, it would seem that around 35,000 living on these islands are atheist, while religion is unimportant for many more. A non-religious ethical voice therefore needs to be heard in an increasingly diverse and multicultural society.
So we try to contribute to debates in the press and social media on topics including the Constitution, racism, secularism, assisted dying, rational thought and, since September 2022, legally binding ‘living wills’. Our ‘Humanist Exchange’ events, which we started in 2021, have promoted lively discussions, for example on free speech, reproductive healthcare, multiculturalism and sex work.
We have made much progress since the early days and now have more than 2,000 followers. And, reaching out to the younger generation, we are participating in EU youth exchanges, and late 2022 are running a project for secondary schools exploring existential themes such as the meaning of existence, personal identity and free will.

And we are setting up a Young Humanists Malta group. But as can be seen from our current campaigns there is still a long way to go before we see a state wholly neutral on matters of belief, recognising secular ethics and a rational and compassionate approach to life.
We offer two types of membership: Associate and Full. Our facebook group, open to associate and full members, brings together a community of humanists who share our aims. We hope to keep working towards a Malta based more on the foundations of justice, compassion, reason, diversity, constructive dialogue, secular values and a respect for the meaning of the one life we have in the one world we live in.