Malta adopted amendments to its criminal code provisions on hate crime by expanding the list of protected characteristics from “racial hatred” to now include “hatred against another person or group on the grounds of gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, colour, language, ethnic origin, religion or belief or political or other opinion or similar”. These additional characteristics apply to general penalty enhancements for any bias-motivated crime in the penal code, as well as to specific penalty enhancements for bias crime in relation to the specific provisions for grievous bodily harm, using violence, threats or harassment and property damage.