ABU DHABI // FNC members sparred with a government minister for more than seven hours yesterday over a new adoption law, with a heated debate on whether abandoned children should be taken first to police or to healthcare professionals.
The marathon discussion at the third session of the 15th FNC legislative chapter covered each clause of the law point by point, with members and the Minister of Social Affairs, Mariam Al Roumi, often disagreeing.
One key issue, members said, was protecting the person who found an abandoned child, weighed against the need to save the child's life if it was in danger.
Article four of the law originally stated that when children are found, they must be taken immediately to the nearest police station.
But after consulting experts, the Health, Labour, and Social Affairs Committee amended the article to state that the child should be taken to either the nearest police station or to a health institute, depending on their health status.
It was a change with which the minister disagreed. "To give the child to a health institute — it is a big responsibility," she said.
She said hospitals did not have procedures to accommodate abandoned children and to take down the details of the person who found the child. Police, on the other hand, had been dealing with the issue for decades.
Hamad Al Rahoumi (Dubai) said police could not help a sick child. "If he is in a terrible condition, then he needs to be taken to hospital, not the police," he said. "A baby around two or three hours old is unlikely to be in a stable health condition."
Ms Al Roumi said police were better equipped to document the child and collect details of whoever found him. "The law is to ensure the protection of the person who found the child," she said.
Ahmed Al Amash (Ras Al Khaimah) agreed with the minister. He said handing the child to police was a better idea because it discouraged people from abandoning children. Ms Al Roumi said allowing hospitals to handle abandoned children could "open doors" to an increase in cases.
The minister said that even if the council united in seeking to have abandoned children taken to hospitals rather than police, the ministry would object at Cabinet level.
Dr Amal Al Qubaisi (Abu Dhabi), pointed out that receiving medical services without having medical insurance was difficult, and the case would be even worse for an abandoned child. Therefore, Dr Al Qubaisi said, the child needed to be referred to the hospital by police.
The council in the end voted for police to be informed first, before the child is taken to a hospital.
The minister also objected to a new article added by the FNC committee requiring all cases of abandoned children to be reported in news media. She said that would present a negative image of the country.
Mr Al Rahoumi, however, said that such publicity could reduce the number of abandoned children.
According to research conducted by the committee, there are between three to four abandoned children a month, about 48 per year.
The committee found that the number was increasing as more nationalities entered the country: more single workers meant more illegitimate children.
Members feared that the law, which provides greater rights for orphans, would encourage more families to abandon their children, particularly those who were illegitimate.
They suggested that DNA tests should be introduced to find the biological parents of the children.
"We need to find a solution to this problem first of all," said Mohamed Al Qubaisi (Abu Dhabi). "It is possible with ID cards to find the family."
In other parts of the 24-article law, the council agreed with the ministry's provision that abandoned children would be given a name followed by three surnames, but none that would relate to a known family name in the UAE.
Members said the names should be Emirati, not just Arabic, to increase patriotism in children. But the minister said the names would be like other common names in society.
The minister and the council disagreed on whether children should be told they were adopted. The members said that if children were not told at an early age, it could shock them later in life.
The minister, however, said a child should not be told without the ministry being informed, and it should occur in the presence of ministry officials.
As part of the law, the ministry will also monitor foster families by sending social workers to their homes. However, it disapproved of the idea that some of the visits should be unannounced, because male social workers might cause complications, the minister said.
The council added an article ensuring that orphans have opportunities to acquire university degrees and jobs before they are removed from a shelter for abandoned children.
Dr Abdulrahim Al Shaheen (RAK) asked the minister how the law would be executed, as laws often take a long time to be implemented. The minister assured him that the budget had already been set.
osalem@thenational.ae
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The specs
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On sale: now
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Unresolved crisis
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.
Fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed more than 14,000 people. In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kiev of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it in full would hurt Ukraine.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Jordan cabinet changes
In
- Raed Mozafar Abu Al Saoud, Minister of Water and Irrigation
- Dr Bassam Samir Al Talhouni, Minister of Justice
- Majd Mohamed Shoueikeh, State Minister of Development of Foundation Performance
- Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research
- Falah Abdalla Al Ammoush, Minister of Public Works and Housing
- Basma Moussa Ishakat, Minister of Social Development
- Dr Ghazi Monawar Al Zein, Minister of Health
- Ibrahim Sobhi Alshahahede, Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Environment
- Dr Mohamed Suleiman Aburamman, Minister of Culture and Minister of Youth
Out
- Dr Adel Issa Al Tawissi, Minister of High Education and Scientific Research
- Hala Noaman “Basiso Lattouf”, Minister of Social Development
- Dr Mahmud Yassin Al Sheyab, Minister of Health
- Yahya Moussa Kasbi, Minister of Public Works and Housing
- Nayef Hamidi Al Fayez, Minister of Environment
- Majd Mohamed Shoueika, Minister of Public Sector Development
- Khalid Moussa Al Huneifat, Minister of Agriculture
- Dr Awad Abu Jarad Al Mushakiba, Minister of Justice
- Mounir Moussa Ouwais, Minister of Water and Agriculture
- Dr Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education
- Mokarram Mustafa Al Kaysi, Minister of Youth
- Basma Mohamed Al Nousour, Minister of Culture
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