State Council to study kids’ safety and ads
The State Council on Wednesday approved a proposal to study protection of children from accidents, and decided to form a drafting committee to incorporate the views of the Council members. It also gave consent to the proposal to study regulation of advertisements.
At the session chaired by Dr Yahya bin Mahfoudh al Mantheri, State Council Chairman, Dr Hamad bin Sulaiman al Salami, Chairman of the Social Committee, delivered a speech in which he said accidents are the leading cause of death of children in the 5-15 age group.
The study seeks to review the legislations related to the safety and security of children and the role of concerned bodies, highlight the challenges in curbing accidents and submit recommendations to better protect children from accidents in the Sultanate.
The committee made a number of recommendations including the development of a national strategy for the protection of children from accidents, the strengthening of the role of the National Commission for Family Affairs and establishment of an integrated system to monitor child safety.
The committee also called for the speedy enactment of children’s law, review standards of toys and the active participation of relevant civil society organis-ations in raising awareness among the community to prevent child abuse.
The Council also approved the proposal of Committee on Culture, Information and Tourism to study the regulation of advertisements. Dr Ahmed bin Ali Mohammed al Mashikhi, Head of the Committee, pointed out that the study aims at framing the legislations and regulations that regulate and monitor advertisement, the development of different classifications of advertisements and ways and means of trading in addition to determining the technical standards of various display advertisements in Oman.
The Council was briefed on a number of communications received by the Council and the report of the General Secretariat based on the Council activities and its various units for the period between the First Regular session and the present one.