JEDDAH: Representatives of the Family Protection Organization, the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR), the government-run Human Rights Commission (HRC) and the Safety Committee at the Social Affairs Ministry met here on Saturday to discuss ways of cooperating to improve the services provided to women victims of domestic abuse.
The meeting was held at Jeddah’s first and only women’s shelter, run by the Family Protection Organization.
Samira Al-Ghamdi, board member of the Family Protection Organization, said that the meeting was called to set out clear guidelines for streamlining the work of these organizations.
“The main purpose of the meeting was to set a general policy in dealing with cases that are transferred to us from other bodies. This is the first meeting of its kind after our organization took over the full responsibility of running the shelter from the Social Affairs Ministry,” said Al-Ghamdi.
The meeting proposed that a committee, comprising representatives of all four bodies, be set up to develop and monitor ways and means of working together as all four bodies share the same goals, she added.
“Our work is not restricted to running the shelter, but it also involves creating social awareness and implementing preventive programs to stop possible abuse,” said Al-Ghamdi.
Hussein Al-Sharief, director of the NSHR’s Western Province branch, said the rights watchdog would like to ensure that victims in critical cases are immediately found a safe place to stay before the paper work begins.
“We informed the Social Affairs Ministry officials who used to run the shelter that we would like to follow up on cases we send to the shelter,” he said, adding that the NSHR wants to make sure that women are not merely hosted there but they also receive proper counseling for rehabilitation.
