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The Cabinet Approves a Policy to Protect People of Determination from Abuse

The UAE Cabinet approved People of Determination Protection from Abuse Policy with a view to empowering and protecting this segment of the society by allowing them to participate effectively within a safe society that offers them enhanced opportunities and guarantees their right to a dignified life.

The Policy aims at protecting the determined from abuse, empowering them, their families and their co-workers to deal with cases of abuse, enable the people of determination to defend themselves when they are abused, and early identification of potential maltreatment of people of determination.

The policy also aims to increase the national cadres specialised in identifying and responding to abuse, and raising their efficiency in rehabilitating people of determination exposed to maltreatment, in addition to providing appropriate forms of rehabilitation and programmes for individuals from people of determination who have been exposed to any forms of abuse and mitigating the impact of such abuse.

The forms of abuse that may be experienced by this segment of society range from depriving them of their basic right of care, rehabilitation, medical care, recreation or community integration, or using them to bring material profits that are not mainly spent on them.

The importance of the Policy stem from the latest statistics which indicate that people of determination are more exposed to abuse than others, as they are from vulnerable groups of society.

This is because their physical capabilities compared to their peers make them less able to defend themselves when they face abuse, or their impaired consciousness such as mental disabilities, autism or sensory deficiencies prevent them from feeling the abuse by seeing or hearing it in cases like hearing or visual impairment.

The Policy comes in response to the psychological and emotional effects that may result from abuse in the long term, knowing that it is hard to find about some forms of abuse if caused by caregivers or relatives to this category, inasmuch as they do not leave any visible physical sequelae.