Wadeema Law soon to be implemented

Abu Dhabi - The new child protection law will come under the purview of family prosecution

By Staff Reporter

Published: Thu 26 May 2016, 2:25 PM

Last updated: Fri 27 May 2016, 8:32 AM

Preparations are underway to implement Wadeema law in line with the directives of Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, who is also Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department.
The Child Protection Law 3, popularly called Wadeema law, was scheduled to take effect by mid of June.
The law was framed in memory of Wadima, an eight-year-old Emirati girl tortured to death by her father and is a 12-chapter document which lays out the legal rights of minors in the UAE.

Know the law
The Child Protection Law 3, popularly called Wadeema Law, is a 12-chapter document which lays out the legal rights of minors in the UAE. The law provides protection to children from birth to puberty.

Ali Mohammed Al Baloushi, the Abu Dhabi Attorney General Counsellor, who has ordered to set up a prosecution body dedicated for children, said that the child prosecution falls within the purview of the family prosecution.
The objective of establishing such a prosecution body for children is to protect its individuals, which is part of the societal and legal responsibility of the public prosecution.
Al Baloushi added that the newly-created child prosecution has been designed to lay down the frameworks and necessary procedures toward fulfilling the objective of Wadeema Law to provide children with maximum protection till the age of 18.
A study conducted by the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children in 2014 has found that 10% of children in UAE schools are exposed to abuse or violence, mainly outside home.
The study on 'Abuse against children in the UAE society' found that 7.2 per cent of male participants were exposed to abuse at home, compared to 5.7 per cent of females.
Similarly, more male children suffer abuse at school (15.1 per cent) than female children (9.3 per cent).
The most recent case of child abuse that shocked the UAE was the death of 8-year-old Jordanian boy Obaida, who was raped and strangled to death by his father's acquaintance.
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