The Shura Council convened Monday at Tamim bin Hamad Hall, chaired by His Excellency the Speaker Hassan bin Abdullah al-Ghanem.
His Excellency the Shura Council Secretary-General Nayef bin Mohammed al-Mahmoud read out the agenda, with the legislature approving the minutes of its previous session.
The council discussed a draft law submitted by a number of council members concerning the digital protection of children.
HE al-Ghanem referred the proposal to the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee, with the latter to submit its report to the council accordingly.
Following deliberation, the legislature unanimously approved to submit the proposal as well to the Health, General Services and the Environment Committee in order to weigh in on it in terms of various aspects and then submit it to the council.
The proposal is laid out amid the rapid expansion the world is witnessing in the utilisation of digital means and platforms by children, coupled with potential challenges and risks related to protection of data and privacy, triggering the exposure to harmful content, cyberbullying, and digital exploitation.
This digital manifestation obviously precipitates the development of legislative frameworks that boost child protection in the digital environment and keep up with the accelerated technological transformations.
In addition, the council endorsed two bills on the Owners’ Association and Measurement, in their amended forms, and referred them to the government after the council members pored over the details of the supplementary report of the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee, alongside the report of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee.
The council also weighed in on a report by Her Excellency the Deputy Speaker of the Shura Council Dr Hamda bint Hassan al-Sulaiti on Doha hosting, through the Council, the 298th session of the Executive Committee meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, convened in January 2026.
Similarly, the council debated the participation of council member Dr Sultan bin Hassan al-Dosari in the temporary diplomatic committee of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU), held in Cairo in August last year.
This is alongside the report of the participation of council member Abdullah bin Nasser bin Turki al-Subaie in the 57th Meeting of the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), which convened in Abu Dhabi in January.
