DUBAI 1 February 2020: The Ministry of Community Development revealed details of the “People of Determination Protection From Abuse” policy that was approved at the beginning of the year.
It is based on three pillars:
- Protection against abuse
- Early detection of abuse, and
- Intervention and rehabilitation
The policy includes 20 initiatives to be implemented by several ministries, federal and government authorities, sports councils, public non-benefit associations, entities and centres related to People of Determination. The policy also identified the forms of abuse, which may be committed deliberately or as a result of negligence, ignorance and lack of insight.
“The new policy was based following legislations and achievements in the UAE: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008, Federal Law No. 29 2006 concerning the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Federal Law No. 03 of 2016 concerning Child Rights ‘Wadeema’ and the Policy for Empowering People of Determination in 2017,” said Nasser Ismail, Assistant Under-Secretary of Social Care.
Wafa Hamad bin Sulaiman, Director of Welfare & Rehabilitation Department for People of Determination, stated that the “People of Determination Protection From Abuse” Policy identified abuse as any behaviour, act or failure to react that leads to breach/violate the rights of the person who is subject to abuse, his/her freedom, physical and mental safety, dignity or interest whether intentionally or through negligence, including financial transactions that he/she did not approve of or has not been able to approve of, or was done through deliberate exploitation; this also includes failure to receive adequate or inadequate care that may take many forms. The policy mentioned four types of abuse: Physical, sexual, emotional, financial or material.
Wafa emphasised that the “abuse prevention” pillar included three goals: Achievement of a legislative system that protects People of Determination from abuse in the UAE, clear mechanisms to protect them from abuse and enable them to overcome it, and to establish a database for those exposed to abuse depending on its type.
“This pillar leads to several initiatives under the new policy: Developing and implementing legislation and policies related to the rights and protection of People of Determination; hotline, family empowerment and protection from abuse, strengthen abuse prevention services, training and empowerment of People of Determination, training of caregivers and service providers; and training of competent authorities, and self-advocacy groups.
The “Abuse Early Detection” pillar highlighted two goals: Access to clear reporting and detection tools about any type of abuse to enable People of Determination, relatives, and service providers to use a monitoring system to ensure the early detection of abuse cases of People of Determination in various institutions and facilities.
Finally, the “Intervention and Rehabilitation” pillar stressed on three goals: Rehabilitation programmes for abused People of Determination to alleviate the effects of abuse on long-term and short-term bases, unify intervention and rehabilitation mechanisms by service providers in various entities and rehabilitation centres and provide societal resources to support abused People of Determination and share experiences.
