Justyne Caruana


Justyne Caruana, is a Maltese lawyer and politician, and former Minister for Gozo. She was appointed on 9 June 2017 in the second cabinet of Joseph Muscat and reconfirmed by Robert Abela before resigning one week later on 20 January 2020.
She was first elected to Parliament in 2003 and successively in 2008, 2013 and 2017, always from her native Gozo constituency.  She served as the Parliamentary Secretary for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing from 2014 to 2017. In Opposition she was Spokesperson  for Youth, Culture, Sports, Family, Children and Persons with Disability.
As head of the Maltese Parliament's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, she also serves on the gender equality task force and is rapporteur of the first committee on political affairs.  Caruana was regional representative of the UK, British Isles and Mediterranean Region on the Steering Committee of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians and currently represents Malta on its Regional British Isles and Mediterranean Steering Committee.  In 2016, Caruana was nominated as Malta's ambassador in the Women in Parliaments Global Forum.
Caruana has travelled widely for study and parliamentary purposes and represented Malta at various ministerial meetings and other high-level international fora.  
She is a member of Social Affairs Committee. Former member of the Public Accounts Family and standing Committee for the Family, which was set up by virtue of a Motion in Parliament which Caruana co-sponsored with another two members of Parliament.
A Lawyer by profession, Caruana specializes in family law, canonical and civil litigation,
In January 2020 she resigned from her position as Minister for Gozo following allegations that her husband Silvio Valletta was involved with alleged Daphne Caruana Galizia murder accomplice Yorgen Fenech.