JEDDAH – The Shoura Council is giving finishing touches to a draft law aimed at protecting women and children from abuse. According to informed sources, the draft law is in its final phase and it will be made public within a month. Nearly 20 percent of children are said to be victims of domestic violence and so are 10 and 15 percent of women, according to unofficial figures. Psychiatrist Dr. Khaled Al-Oufi, assistant director of Jeddah's Al-Amal Hospital, said emotional neglect is the most common form of child abuse in the Kingdom. This involves ignoring children's mental and physical care, especially their feelings and concern as well as their health and education. Al-Oufi said there should be clinical programs under which each victim of abuse would undergo a massive rehabilitation program. Meanwhile, participants of a forum that began at King Fahd Hospital on Wednesday have urged the formation of a unified committee to follow up domestic violence cases and bring victims of violence under the supervision of a governmental body. The forum, entitled “Domestic violence in social and medical perspective,” was organized by Abdullah Bugshan Chair for Studies of Domestic Violence, in cooperation with the community service division of Bugshan General Hospital. They emphasized that such a panel can have access to comprehensive information to closely follow up domestic violence cases. The participants suggested that all departments and agencies concerned with domestic violence, such as the ministries of health, interior and social affairs and specialized societies on protection of families, should have representatives on the committee.
