Saudi Gazette report MADINAH — Family affairs courts are due to start operating from Aug. 10, local daily Al-Watan reported on Sunday. The courts will consider all family-related cases including divorce, khula (where a woman divorces her husband without his consent), authentication of marriage contracts, child custody, appointment of male guardians and settling inheritance cases. The announcement was made following a meeting of the Supreme Judiciary Council chaired by Justice Minister Muhammad Al-Issa. According to sources, five independent and autonomous family affairs courts will be established in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah and Dammam. General courts in all other regions of the Kingdom have been asked to establish special circuits for family affairs. The minister also asked for the establishment of summary, commercial and labor circuits in the general courts in all regions. The council's ruling came a year after the ministry's decision to convert the two courts for social insurance and marriages in Riyadh and Jeddah into family affairs courts. The council decided that the special family affairs circuits in the general courts all over the Kingdom would start operating from Aug. 21. The sources said the council's chairman would appoint the head of each family affairs court. The council asked the ministry to prepare headquarters for the courts and to provide them with staff, office furniture and other requirements. Under the system, the family affairs courts will also settle differences among inheritors, especially those involving real estate and assets, dismiss male guardians whenever there is a need and help girls who do not have male guardians or whose guardians object to them getting married.
