April has been named Child Abuse Prevention Month and the Ministry of Interior is stepping up its efforts to protect children in this country. The ministry’s Child Protection Centre has launched an awareness campaign under the slogan “Together to Prevent Child Abuse” to raise public awareness and educate parents and community members about the various forms of child abuse and the proper ways to prevent them.
Such efforts are in line with the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, which dedicates this month to raising awareness of child abuse and promoting collaboration to ensure the well-being of children around the world.
This month, too, the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) unanimously approved the Ministry of Interior’s representative, Maj Gen Dr Nasser Lakhrebani Al Nuaimi, Secretary General of the Office of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, to chair the VGT for the next three years, starting in November. The group is an international alliance of 18 public and private organisations dedicated to combating online child sexual abuse.
While the fact that the UAE representative will chair the VGT is a great honour, it also places an additional responsibility on the country to protect children from abuse and neglect.
However, this can’t be done without passing the federal Child Protection Law, which was announced first in 2012 and discussed and passed by the Federal National Council last year.
The Child Protection Centre has been doing its bit in monitoring activities that indicate potential abuse, exploitation or crimes against children, including acts committed by sex offenders to groom children online. The division has also made efforts to protect children against any potential crime or practices that may encourage child exploitation.
And this is what made it possible for the UAE to have the opportunity to lead an international organisation like the VGT. The country is the only one in the region that is a member of the group.
But online investigations are not enough to protect vulnerable children from potential abuse. The country needs a child protection division in every government sector that deals with children, such as the health, education and social sectors.
And here lies the importance of the Child Protection Law. The law will fill the existing gap by spelling out the basic health, social, cultural and educational rights of children and set out mechanisms, measures and penalties for the protection of these rights, in line with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the UAE ratified in 1996.
Enacting the law would open the doors for collaboration between the relevant organisations and the Child Protection Centre in its efforts to protect children in the UAE. It will help establish a database of all issues related to children and compile a list of sex offenders to track individuals who could potentially pose risks to children.
The law will also send a strong message that the country will not tolerate any kind of abuse against children, and provide clear guidelines on how to prevent and deal with cases.
Government regulations, programmes and practices that affect children in different sectors must be aligned with the principle of child protection to bring life to the UAE’s Child Protection Law. This cannot be possible without holding the relevant authorities accountable for the implementation of the law.
For example, hospitals have to provide child-protection training for their staff to identify and report violence and cases of mistreatment against children. The same training should be provided to staff at schools and nurseries across the country. And more importantly, members of staff have to be empowered to report on suspected cases without facing any legal implications.
The accession of the UAE to the VGT provides an opportunity for the country to take a further step in the protection of children and show its commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of all children.
aalmazrouei@thenational.ae
@AyeshaAlmazroui
