JEDDAH, 9 February 2007 — Three weeks ago, Ghosun’s father was sentenced to five years in prison for brutally abusing the nine-year-old girl and murdering her in April 2006 in Makkah. The girl’s stepmother who collaborated with her husband in abusing his daughter is still in jail awaiting sentencing. She may face execution if found guilty of causing Ghosun’s death.
In a similar story, last week a committee in Taif issued a pardon in another case in which a child’s stepmother was punished for severely beating the six-year-old girl — Rahaf — to the extent that she required hospitalization in November 2005.
Rahaf’s father refused to press charges against his wife at the time but the biological mother did. A judge sentenced the stepmother to three months in jail and 50 lashes. The ruling was upheld but now the case has been returned to the original judge for a decision on whether to implement the sentence or the pardon.
Almost everyday, newspapers report terrible stories of child abuse or acts of violence or mistreatment inflicted on children, whether by parents, house-workers, teachers or relatives. The debate continues in the media as to whether these should be looked at as individual cases or as a growing and disturbing phenomenon.
Meanwhile, several conferences, seminars and workshops were held last year to focus needed attention on the problem from a medical, legal and social perspective. These meetings made many valid recommendations on necessary ways to prevent child abuse, protect and intervene in cases of abuse and enforce punitive measures on the perpetrators.
In a series of articles, Arab News will investigate these three components in facing the problem of child abuse: Prevention, protection and punishment.
“The best way to deal with violence against children is to stop it before it happens,” said Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the independent expert appointed by the UN secretary-general to chair a study in October 2006 on violence against children. He said that everyone had a role to play in preventing violence but that states must take primary responsibility in prohibiting all kinds of violence against children, wherever it occurs and whoever is the perpetrator.
The states must also, the study said, invest in prevention programs to address the underlying causes. “People must be held accountable for their actions but a strong legal framework is not only about sanctions; it is about sending a robust, unequivocal signal that society simply will not accept violence against children,” he concluded.
Ghosun’s case is an example of failure by all government institutions even though the warning signs were clearly visible. The case fails also to send a strong message that such inhumane acts will not be tolerated. The child’s mother had tried for an entire year while Ghosun was in her father’s custody to involve the authorities because she knew that her daughter was being abused. The father had a history of abusing both mother and daughter; even the man’s own brother tried to rescue Ghosun but was unable to do so.
Ghosun was starved, beaten mercilessly, burned, chained to her bed and prevented from going to school. The neighbors must have heard her crying and must have seen her thrown out of the family’s apartment to sit in the stairwell alone for hours. Fearing the father’s anger and wrath, they did not bother to help or call the police. The school did not ask about her when she was absent nor did it report any suspicion of abuse. Ghosun’s mother, on the other hand, approached the police, the social services department, the National Society for Human Rights and the municipality but all of them either ignored the woman or said they were unable to intervene because the father had denied them access to the girl.
On the day of the murder, according to the police report, Ghosun had broken ribs, front teeth knocked out, bruises and knife wounds. She choked on her own blood, the report said. Ghosun’s father and stepmother both admitted to torturing the girl. He has been sentenced to five years in prison, the minimum in such cases, and she is waiting to be sentenced.
Rahaf was also brutally abused by her stepmother and might have suffered the same fate as Ghosun if it had not been for her teachers who noticed her injuries and took her to hospital. Because she survived and because the father cares more for his wife’s well-being than for his own daughter, he has been allowed to go free. In this case, success in removing an abused child from a harmful environment has nonetheless ended in failure.
What changes need to be made in the prosecution and legal system in order to punish abusers? Have teachers been trained to notice signs of abuse and provide assistance? Is there a definition of an “unfit father” to which family members and authorities can refer when revoking his guardianship? Are there any guidelines and follow-up procedures for courts and social workers to determine the best home environment for a child in cases of divorce, especially if there have been reports or suspicions of abuse? What rights does the mother have in such cases? What proactive role can health workers, who are in the frontline in responding to violence against children, play in protecting children? These are some of the questions that Arab News will attempt to answer.
