Check abuse of children - NGO

The Bahraini Women Society yesterday called for enforcing strict measures to protect the children in the country.

"The society is compiling a study on steps to improve child protection laws in the kingdom," group member Dr. Soroor Qarooni told Gulf News, adding that the current laws could be "adjusted".

Once the study is completed, she added, it would be delivered to the appropriate establishments. The study will look into the child protection laws in Arab and foreign countries.

"Let us take this scenario, if child is sexually abused, the parents can press charges. However, the parents also have the authority to drop the case and the assaulter is free once again to roam and choose another victim," she said.

The case shouldn't be dismissed and it should go on because it's the society's right to judge and punish such criminals," she said.

Dr. Qarooni also said there is no law in Bahrain to protect children from abuse within the family.

"If a child is abused by a family member, no law can protect the child. We need detailed laws to tackle the increasing number of abuse cases in Bahrain," she added, "More and more cases are coming to light because the media is highlighting such incidents. Earlier, these type of cases were overlooked."

The highly-publicised incident of the lost girl Fatima is a case to study and base the law upon, she said. The 11- year-old girl left her father's house in February this year and never came back.

"She was abused by her father and her stepmother and she thought running away was the only option. We don't know where Fatima is but we can prevent such incidents by protecting and educating the children. The first step should be to enact a law to protect children from family related abuse," she said.

The society was established in July last year and has been implementing several programmes, including the 'Be Free' project that aims to protect and educate children, parents and the society in general on child abuse.

The project includes counseling through a hotline and a website as well as organising seminars around the country.

The project is supported by Sheikha Hala bin Duaij Al Kha-lifa, the wife of the Crown Prince, and the UN Higher Commissi-oner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson.

The society received the 'Wango' award for human rights last month at the annual conference of the World Associa-tion for Non-Governmental Organisation held in Washington.