Why penalize doctors, teachers who don't report domestic violence cases, asks Bahrain Shura committee

TDT | Manama                                                     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Women and Children Committee at the Bahrain Shura Council has recommended rejecting a parliamentary law that aims to penalise doctors, teachers, and domestic workers who fail to report cases of domestic violence.

The committee argued that the proposed law, known as the Domestic Violence Protection Law, does not require penalties for individuals committing domestic violence and therefore does not necessitate punishment for those who fail to report such crimes.

The committee expresses concerns that the broad scope of the law, encompassing domestic workers, doctors, and teachers, may inadvertently involve them in family disputes, subjecting them to criminal penalties and compromising the sanctity of the family.

Additionally, the committee highlights the potential unintended consequences of the law, as individuals could be penalised for not reporting incidents of domestic violence that they became aware of outside their professional duties.

Furthermore, if a victim decides not to file a complaint, the criminal case would be dismissed, leaving the perpetrator unaccountable while penalising the person who failed to report the incident.

Punitive provisions

The committee’s report emphasises that the punitive provisions of the proposed law target an unspecified group of individuals, contradicting the principles of criminal legislation, which should be precise.

The committee also pointed out that comparative Arab legislation shows that the majority of Arab countries have not imposed criminal penalties for failure to report domestic violence cases, such as the UAE and Lebanon.

Some countries rely on provisions within their penal codes, like Qatar and Kuwait, while others, such as Saudi Arabia, classify failure to report as an administrative offence for public officials, resulting in disciplinary penalties.

In contrast, Jordan has set a penalty of no more than one week of imprisonment or a fine not exceeding fifty dinars for failure to report, which is the minimum sentence.