The campaign — Together Against Child Abuse — started because of rising violence against children in Saudi Arabia due to the absence of a strict law against perpetrators of child abuse.

Latest statistics issued by the Interior Ministry confirmed that 45 percent of Saudi children are at risk of violence from people around them. Twenty-one percent of violence against children happens daily, while 24 percent of children face violence frequently.

Saud Al-Kateb believes that authorities should work hard to reduce the number of violent incidents committed against children. “We are suffering from the absence of a law defining children’s rights. Most violent cases involving children covered by the Saudi media did not have a proper resolution,” said Al-Kateb of the Asbar Center.

He confirmed that most available charity organizations are working on increasing awareness of violence against children, but the role of these organizations is still limited.

“The charity organizations’ role is limited. They only hold forums and discuss cases of violence without finding solutions. At the end, they issue recommendations, but with no real effort to follow up on them,” said Al-Kateb.

“The aim of the campaign was to highlight child abuse and find solutions. We started with an online campaign and we noticed a large number of people joining, hoping to make a difference.”

He added that the success of the campaign encouraged the center to form the first organization to examine child violence cases in cooperation with several authorities such as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Culture and Information and Ministry of Interior.

According to Al-Kateb, one of the campaign goals is to educate parents about the different forms of abuse. He claimed parents see some forms of verbal abuse acceptable when it is not.

“We also plan to teach children not to hide if they are a victim of any kind of violence. They should expose the violence that they suffer from and we will come forward to help them,” said Al-Kateb.

“To implement our plan seriously, we will organize meetings with the Ministry of Education, experts and teachers in order to discuss violence against children and how to make the community aware of sexual violence and other types of abuse against youngsters.”

He said that the center would study scientific, medical, social, and psychological research on domestic violence. “We want to advocate the need for specialized training for those working in the health sector. They should have enough skills to identify a child abuse case and inform the police to take action,” said Al-Kateb.

Al-Kateb confirmed that there are many forms of violence that Saudi families commit, but which they see as an acceptable form of discipline.

“Most families believe that beating children is the best way to make them polite and obey their parents. There are many different ways families can raise their children without abusing them.”