Abu Dhabi: The Safe Childhood Promising, Future Forum, aimed at raising awareness among the community about child abuse and neglect, was recently inaugurated by Major General Dr Nasser Lakrebani Al Nuaimi, the Secretary-General of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Higher Committee for Child Protection at the Ministry of Interior.

The forum falls under the Ministry of Interior’s framework of “Together to Prevent Child Abuse” during April.

Major General Dr Al Nuaimi said that preventing child abuse begins in the home with good parenting, saying, “child protection against all types of dangers and abuse is a shared responsibility that begins at home, with good parenting — hence the importance of raising public awareness on the need to prevent child abuse and neglect.”

He went on to add that as part of the Ministry of Interior’s goal of ensuring child protection, that it would establish policies and strategies towards that goal. He also stressed that the MoI is active in investigating child abuse in partnership with other authorities.

Major Dr Mohammad Khalifa Al Ali, Director of the Ministry of Interior’s Child Protection Centre, said that raising awareness and educating the public on the need to provide child protection for all children in the UAE was one of the forum’s main goals.

He also added that a number of professionals and experts from the field of child protection were involved as part of the forum saying, “the specialists tackled the various psychological, social, and medical aspects related to child protection, and shared their valuable expertise and information, creating an interesting interactive dialogue with the audience.”

As part of the forum, panel discussions were also held to discuss ways in supporting efforts to prevent child abuse, and to come up with scientific solutions to prevent abuse. Psychological effects of child abuse and how to treat and prevent it were also raised.

Experts also discussed how to detect child abuse by knowing how to identity the forensic and medical signs of abuse.