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Riyadh: A draft on a by-law to protect women and children against sexual, psychological and physical abuse will be finished next week, Saudi Minister of Social Affairs Abdul Mohsen Al Akkas has announced.
The study by the Experts Commission of the Council of Ministers came after reports by Saudi and foreign human rights groups. The minister told reporters on Saturday evening that the new law was a qualitative move to eliminate domestic violence.
"What makes the ministry prepare this draft law is that there are cases of violence not only against wives but against children too," the minister said.
According to media reports, 569 domestic violence cases were filed in 2005. Of these 230 were in the southern region, 130 in the Makkah region, 60 in Hail, 17 in Tabuk, six in Baha and Najran, another six in Al Jouf, four in Jazan and four in the Northern Frontier region.
Meanwhile, in a related development, a number of Saudi women have called for the acceleration of the formation of family courts. Earlier, the Saudi monarch King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz ordered the formation of family courts to confront the problem.
Drug addiction
Maha Al Ghamdi, a social supervision employee at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said during a recent seminar that 323 women in Riyadh reported cases of family violence last year, comprising 87 per cent of the total cases reported, while 50 men or 13 per cent complained of family violence.
She added that 48 per cent of the cases involved physical violence while 5 per cent concerned psychological violence.
The most common age group subjected to family violence was between 19 and 35, she said. She added that drug addition, family problems and psychological disturbances were the main factors behind family violence.
Al Jawhara Al Anqari, a founding member of the Saudi National Human Rights Society (NHRS), said that 45 per cent of Saudi children are subjected to violence in different forms. She called earlier for a fatwa (Islamic legal opinion) on women's rights.
She pointed out that the increase in domestic violence in the kingdom has led to calls for the preparation and teaching of school textbooks on human rights. She said that 90 per cent of the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights comply with Islamic Sharia.
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