Dubai: The Child and Women Protection Department of Dubai Police’s Human Rights Department has helped two children who were being physically abused by their parents this month.

Col Dr Mohammad Al Murr, Director of the Human Rights Department at Dubai Police, said that in both cases, the abuse was reported by the children’s school.

He commended the schools for taking action as, according to the law, it is the duty of every figure of authority, such as doctors or educators, to report suspected cases of child abuse.

If someone knows a child is being abused and does not report it, they could face legal action.

Maj Shaheen Ishaq Al Mazmi, Director of the Child and Women Protection Department, said the first case is of a 10-year-old Arab boy who was being beaten by his parents.

“The operations room received a call from the boy’s school saying that they suspected he was being abused by his parents. We sent a specialist and an officer from our department to the school to investigate the matter, and they did find that the boy had slap marks on his face,” he said.

The parents were called to the department.

He said the parents said that they were disciplining the child because he was disobedient and was not studying.

“We made the parents sign an undertaking that they will not hurt the child again. We did not open a criminal case as the child did not have any injuries or broken bones,” Col Al Mazmi explained.

Maj Al Mazmi said that the other case they received this month was more serious.

He said that the school called the police and reported that one of their students, a six-year-old African girl, had burn marks on her arm.

“As with every case, we sent a specialist and an officer to the school and they found that the girl had multiple burns on her arm that looked like they were inflicted on purpose using a hot metal object,” he said.

After investigation, a criminal case was filed at the police station and the parents were summoned.

He said that the mother confessed to disciplining the girl, and alleged she burnt her to teach her how it feels to be burnt as the girl had accidentally burnt her younger sibling.

Legal procedures are still under way in this case.

“There is a difference between disciplining a child and abuse. There are limits and inflicting serious injury is crossing that limit,” Maj Al Mazmi said.