Child Protection Law

Purpose and scope

• Protects children, meaning anyone not over eighteen, from all forms of physical, psychological and sexual abuse and neglect (Article 1); a child always has priority for protection, care and relief (Article 5).

Key rules, rights and obligations

• Forms of abuse and neglect include leaving a child without family support, failing to obtain or withholding their documents, missing required vaccinations, causing them to drop out of school, mistreatment, using them to beg, degrading words and discrimination (Article 3).
• A child is at risk of delinquency in cases such as begging, escaping parental authority and habitually running away from home (Article 4).
• Employing a child under fifteen or giving them work harmful to their safety is prohibited (Article 8), as are sexual exploitation and using a child in crime or begging (Article 9), and selling tobacco to a child (Article 11).
• Producing, publishing or circulating any work aimed at children that presents conduct contrary to Sharia or public order as attractive, or encourages deviance, is prohibited (Article 12 as amended).
• Parents or carers are responsible for a child's upbringing and protection within their means, and if parents separate the child keeps the right to visit and contact each of them (Article 15 as amended).

Violations, penalties and common problems

• Committing an act of abuse: up to two years' imprisonment and a fine of up to one hundred thousand riyals, or either, and the court may impose an alternative sentence (Article 23 bis).
• The penalty rises to two to five years and a fine of one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand riyals if the victim has a disability, the abuse occurs at a place of study or care, a weapon is used, or there are multiple acts, and it is doubled for a repeat (Article 23 bis).
• Common problem: withholding a child's documents or keeping them out of school because of a family dispute, which counts as neglect (Article 3).

Procedures and key deadlines

• Anyone who learns of abuse or neglect must report it to the authorities immediately, and the authorities must make reporting easy, especially by the child (Article 22).
• The Public Prosecution investigates and prosecutes, and the competent court hears violations and decides the penalty (Article 23 as amended).
• A child without a suitable family environment has the right to alternative care such as a foster family (Article 7).

An advisory summary prepared by Al-Bayan Al-Wadih Law Firm. It is not an official text and does not replace the law, its implementing regulations, or advice from a specialised lawyer. The official published text and its amendments prevail.