Saudi Arabia’s Cabinet approved an anti-harassment law on Tuesday.The law comprises eight articles to combat harassment, prevent it from occurring, punish the perpetrators and protect the victim’s privacy, dignity and personal freedom, according to a statement to Saudi Press Agency.
Revealing details about the new anti-harassment law at a press conference late on Thursday, Ministry of Interior officials also said the system will penalise those who submit unfounded complaints made for malicious reasons in harassment cases.
“The implementation of the system will begin as soon as it is published in the Official Gazette, which as I said, will be within days,” Major General Mansour Al Turki, the official spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, told the news conference.
The Council of Ministers passed the anti-harassment law on Tuesday and noted that a royal decree had been prepared. The Cabinet passed the law only a day after the 150-seat Shura Council, the Kingdom’s legislative advisory body, approved the draft bill. The legislation was prepared by the Ministry of Interior on the orders of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who heads the Council of Ministers.
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King Salman had ordered the Ministry of Interior to prepare the anti-harassment bill in light of the negative impact of harassment on the individual, family and society, the Shura Council had said in a statement. Harassment also violates Islamic values. In order to combat the social phenomenon of harassment, it was deemed necessary to enact a law that criminalises such behavior and spells out its legal consequences.
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