The Kingdom has denounced all kinds of violence against children including physical and psychological.

This came during a recent meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva in which several countries participated.

The Kingdom’s representative at the United Nations in Geneva, Faisal Trad, said before the Human Rights Council that strengthening and protecting children’s rights is one of the major responsibilities of local and international authorities. This issue deserves to capture the immediate interest of the international community and there should be effective implementation of international commitments.

He said violence against children should not be justified, and there is a pressing need to strengthen international cooperation to protect children from all types of violence, and ensure that perpetrators do not enjoy impunity.

He said that domestic violence can be dealt with through education and direction in addition to strengthening partnerships on the official and private levels, and finding solutions to ease the suffering of victims.

He added that Islamic Shariah on which the Kingdom bases its laws, called for the protecting of human rights including children’s rights.

The Kingdom has joined the children’s rights treaty, and approved a number of local and international social initiatives. The basic system guarantees a number of rights such as protection from violence and abuse based on domestic violence issues. The national safety program and the research center at King Fahd Hospital have launched the national register for child abuse in order for child protection centers in the health sector to enter demographic data, directly through the Internet by monitoring abuse and cases of neglect.

He said the Kingdom has launched the Asas program which aims to improve early education for children, and introduced the Children’s Friends, which makes the basis for a professional and sustainable partnership with media establishments to raise awareness about children’s issues.

Trad said the Kingdom has established the empowerment initiative to raise the capacity of leaders who supervise children’s programs in the state’s various sectors and enables them to deal with current and expected challenges. It has also developed the protection program which aims to participate in raising the level of prevention of violence against children at the national level, by training teachers and educators on how to uncover and treat cases of violence. The Kingdom has also strengthened the “Children’s Partners” program which is the most important tool for implementing the national strategy for childhood and aims to achieve full coordination between authorities interested in childhood.