JEDDAH, 9 March 2006 — There is a need for more stringent laws and procedures to protect the victims of violence, the majority of whom are the weakest members of society: women and children.

That was the message agreed upon unanimously by the participants at the “Workshop on domestic and social violence” held at the National Guard Hospital organized by the social services administration in cooperation with the National Family Safety Program of the hospital.

The participants representing the social affairs, education, medical and non-profit organizations as well as religious and legal institutions presented statistics, regulations and problems of the current situation in handling cases of domestic violence and made suggestions for improving the system.

The three-day workshop that ended yesterday witnessed heated discussions on the shortcomings of the system, the loopholes and biases in the judiciary and the obstacles faced by the social workers, medical personnel and shelter homes in providing enough support and protection to the victims.

The fact is that cases of violence against people in general are on the increase. According to Brig. Gen. Ayedh Al-Malki, director of penal studies at the Ministry of Interior, in 2004 there were 3,401 reported cases in Jeddah and in 2006 there were 3,861 cases. He said that unfortunately families are still reluctant to report acts of violence for fear of scandal or further harm.

Nevertheless, 115 domestic disputes were reported in 2005 and the number increased to 425 cases in 2006. The cases of abuse against children aged one to 15 reported in 2005 were 62 and jumped to 108 — 60 of those against girls — in 2006. Family disputes are always the most difficult to mitigate because if the abuser is the father, for example, jailing him or taking away custody might subject the family to more social and financial hardships.

Al-Malki told Arab News that the reasons for the increase in cases of violence could be related to low religious awareness, drug abuse, family disputes, foreigners in the community who practice and spread unacceptable behavior and other reasons. The important thing, he says, is that this problem should be addressed as a mission for each member of the community to do their part in reporting, preventing and protecting the abused.

Another interesting presentation full of telling numbers was by Maha Al-Munif, executive director of the National Family Security Program. She said that a recent study on 3,000 children of all ages in three different regions of the Kingdom showed that 25 percent of them were abused by their parents. She said that in general, abuse of children is committed 36 percent by fathers, 32 percent by mothers and four percent by maids and that physical abuse is committed 80 percent by the parents and 20 percent by relatives.

Sexual abuse is the most dangerous, said Al-Munif, but it is the least reported. Family members commit an estimated three-fourths of sexual abuses against children in the Kingdom. The rate of rape of children over 12 years old increases among girls than boys. She also said that family violence cases reported through the emergency rooms are on the rise.

She said that it is not enough to ask the parent to sign a pledge not to repeat the offense, that there should be better ways to follow up on the cases after they leave the hospital and better standards of shelters.

The director of the Protection Center, a shelter for abused women and children, said the center received 30 cases of abuse last year and complained that shelters face many procedural and bureaucratic obstacles in the courts, police stations and medical institutions when trying to intervene, protect or bring justice to the abused. She recommended better mechanisms and a larger budget to implement laws and regulations.

Hussain Al-Qahtani, chairman of crimes department at the Bureau for Investigation and Prosecution in Jeddah, pointed to the difficulty in proving rape cases.

“The judge will accept only two kinds of evidence in order to give a death sentence: a confession and/or witnesses. In cases of rape it is almost impossible to meet either of these two requirements, which means that the judge can only give reprimand sentences of jailing and lashing in accordance with his estimates and convictions about each case,” he said.