JEDDAH, 30 June 2004 — A father was recently executed in Abha for killing his daughter.

A.R. Al-Muri had been physically abusing his daughter and inflicting burns on her body until she succumbed to her injuries. The father tried to hide his crime by putting the body in a bag and dumping it in the desert.

The dead girl’s sister, who suffered the same treatment, survives with a disfigured face and body. She now lives in a social care facility.

Another father in Jeddah, the subject of earlier Arab News reports whose abuse of his three-year-old son left the child quadriplegic, has now abandoned the child. He was summoned by police six months ago but remains at large.

In another reported incident of child abuse, a father in Makkah burned his nine-year-old son with an iron rod for messing up his car. Administrators at the child’s school noticed burns on the boy’s hands and feet. After providing the boy with the necessary treatment at a hospital, the school alerted the Makkah Education Department, which formed a committee to investigate the incident.

The committee questioned the father on “the reasons and motives for this severe punishment of his son and tried to inform him of the proper way to treat his son with kindness,” a newspaper report said. When the child showed up with bruises on several occasion, the school repeatedly contacted the father and asked him to sign an undertaking to stop abusing the child, the school principal said.

This is only a small sample of the abuse children suffer in Saudi society. In a recent study, it was found that 74.6 percent of the children brought to hospitals for treatment suffered physical abuse. These children are abused not only by their parents but also by domestic workers, relatives and neighbors. Another study found that 45 percent of Saudi children are subjected to some form of abuse on a daily basis, 21 percent are constantly abused and 24 percent sometimes.

Of the abuse, 33.6 percent is psychological, 25.3 percent physical and 23.9 percent neglect. Although some efforts have been made to address the issue at a social level, the critical instruments for pursuing and punishing the abusers remain out of reach.

In a recent seminar on child abuse, Dr. Talat Wazna, medical services director at the Ministry of Social Affairs, said one of the main problems is the uncertain future of the child once a judge rules to keep the child in a shelter while the parents undergo rehabilitation.

While some 75 percent of children in the care facilities of the Social Affairs Ministry are referred by municipalities, the ministry cannot accept cases referred by hospitals or police stations without the permission of the child’s guardian, who is often the abuser, or of the regional governor.

Too often people are unaware that they can file complaints with the Public Prosecution and Investigation Committee and instead go to the police, according to Hussein Qahtani, the director of the committee in Yanbu. “Most people are ignorant of their rights when they file an abuse complaint and this discourages them from coming forward,” said Qahtani.

However, even if people go through the proper channel and an investigation is carried out, there are no mechanisms that protect the child, according to lawyer Dr. Basim Alim. “The problem is that there are no clearly defined system and procedures to protect abused children,” Dr. Alim told Arab News. Child abuse is widespread and requires a careful study of the types of abuse — be it mistreatment or exploitation — and the need for clear regulations defining the role of the different authorities, he said.

Unfortunately, even when hospital reports indicate suspicion of child abuse, further investigations into who, how and why are usually stalled because family members will not cooperate.

“In cases of physical abuse, there is evidence, and investigations can proceed to some extent, but where there is no obvious physical evidence or in case of sexual abuse, it is very difficult to prove anything,” he said.

The Makkah municipality recently formed a committee for child protection, but it has done little so far except outline ways of detecting child abuse. The only concrete action is taken if and when a case comes to court and a judge grants custody to one parent.

But matters rarely proceed that far, and abused children can have no confidence that there is an effective system in place to protect them.