The Ministry of Labor and Social Development is working on a new executive chart for the family protection units and the hospitality homes that will not oblige the abused women or those who have completed their jail sentences to stay at these facilities.

This was revealed at a special function held in Riyadh on Sunday to celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which was organized by the Human Rights Commission.

Muna Al-Harbe, female social worker who is supervising the protection homes, delivered a working paper in which she announced that the ministry will soon issue a new chart which will not oblige women to stay at these homes against their will.

"No women who are abused or have completed their prison terms will be obliged to stay at any of the social protection or hospitality homes," she said.

In the working paper titled: "Mechanism of Supporting Abused Women", Harbe said the new chart will give priority to the social care of the abused women so as to preserve their dignity.

She said there are 17 social protection and two hospitality homes in the Kingdom.

She also said there are 28 social protection teams and about 688 male and female employees supervising these homes.

Hala Al-Tuwaijri, secretary general of the ministry's Family Affairs Council, said there were no accurate statistics on the cases of violence against women in the Arab countries including the Kingdom.

"We have no idea about the financial losses caused by violence against women either on the abused women themselves or the governments," she said.

She added that it was important for them to know the cost of violence against women so as to be able to direct the resources to the right direction.

SOURCE : SAUDIGAZETTE