First phase of Digital Family Documentation Program begins

New Digital Family Documentation Program in Qatar

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) announced the launch of the experimental phase of the digital family documentation program, within the framework of the national initiative to develop justice systems and update all electronic services.

This step comes within the plans to issue family documentation services in an electronic way in line with achieving digital transformation, facilitating procedures, reducing time and raising data quality.

Judge Dr. Khaled Al Roumi, head of the Family Documentation Department, said that the administration, within the framework of the digital project for documentation services, has begun to re-engineer the procedures, reduce the number of services provided and take advantage of modern technology in providing updated information to individuals and government agencies through direct digital linkage by providing data in an easy-to-read manner electronically at Individuals when used by other parties.

About the Program

The aim is to reduce the number of services provided and take advantage of modern technology in providing updated information to individuals and government agencies through direct digital linkage.

As part of the digital development plans, the Family Authentication Department launched the first package of the digital family documentation initiative experimentally this month, including the service of marriage contracts and the issuance of the marriage card.

Accordingly, the marriage contract is currently issued digitally through an integrated system. This starts from the stage of application by the individual and is completed through the legal authorised via smart devices. The parties to the contract sign the form for the contract digitally.

Subsequently, the documents of the digital marriage contract are also sent to the Authentication Department to be reviewed, approved, and documented through the programme's electronic platform.

Digital Marriage Contract

The digital marriage contract is then made available through the individual’s national authentication account on the family documentation portal, with the issuance of a paper copy of the contract based on a digitally filled contract form including the authentication number. The paper copy issued by the police press and with modern designs will have security features that cannot be forged.

As part of the same initiative, a new service of issuing a marriage card, which is similar to the individual card (ID), has also been launched. It comes within the procedures to facilitate for individuals using only the main data from the marriage contract. It is easy to use and carry when needed to be used by government agencies that have not yet been linked digitally with the SJC.

The card includes a bar code that includes all the data and updated electronically to reflect the status of the marriage contract (in the case of validity or in the event of the contract being suspended due to a divorce certificate registered on the personal data).
This card comes as an alternative to a number of other services that were cancelled by virtue of the digital transformation of services. These are the service of “proving the continuity of marriage” or “requesting an updated authenticated copy of the marriage contract” and the accompanying request to bring witnesses.

The card is linked with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on the digital data exchange platform, to provide a statement of social status “married / divorced / single / widowed” to the competent authorities to update their data m and stop directing beneficiaries to submit an updated certificate proving their status.

Privacy and Data Protection

By considering privacy and data protection according to the classification of the SJC, the Documentation Department was keen to issue a card linked to the contract number to be used by individuals without the need to present the full contract with all data.
Beneficiaries can apply for the service of issuing a marriage card for a previous contract and specify the receipt request by attending the family court building or delivering the card as well as other services through the Qatar Post service.

Judge Khaled al-Roumi confirmed that the aforementioned services are considered the first package of family documentation services. During the year, the administration within the digital transformation project will continue to issue all its services to individuals on the electronic documentation portal.

Source: SJC