Emirati researcher calls for harsher punishments for those who break environmental laws

Howrah Moosa’s one-year-long study is the first attempt of its kind, comparing the UAE’s environmental laws with those of Egypt, Jordan, Sudan and the rest of the GCC.

Part of Howrah Moosa’s thesis calls for more breaches of environmental laws to be treated as criminal, rather than civil, cases. Razan Alzayani / The National

DUBAI // A young Emirati researcher has proposed toughening up environmental laws and how they are implemented in an effort to safeguard the country’s natural resources.

Howrah Moosa’s year-long study is the first attempt of its kind, comparing the UAE’s environmental laws with those of Egypt, Jordan, Sudan and the rest of the GCC. She also reviewed aspects of French, German and Swiss environmental laws.

Pollution, the harming of and illegal trade in rare wildlife, as well as illegally transporting hazardous materials, were examples of environmental crimes, she said, and in many cases these crimes go unpunished.

“In real life, crimes against the environment are committed every day but, still, only a limited number ... are pursued by the courts,” said Ms Moosa, through a translator.

One reason for this, she said, was that there was no one in the UAE legal system who specialised in such crimes, despite laws that outline stiff punishments for environmental crimes.

Another reason had to do with the need to introduce special legal provisions that would stipulate how laws for the protection of the environment should be implemented.

The 26-year-old did the work for her Master’s thesis in law at Ajman University of Science and Technology.

The study, The Legal Responsibility for Crimes against the Environment, will be publicly available in April.

As part of her research, Ms Moosa reviewed court cases related to environmental breaches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah. She found records of 10 such cases in the past 20 years.

“Most of these cases were related to maritime pollution, especially oil spills,” she said, adding that only one case concerned the harming of wildlife.

The majority were treated as civil, rather than criminal, cases. Civil cases usually result in fines rather than prison terms for those found guilty. Ms Moosa would like to see a change in the law so more cases are treated as criminal cases.

She also suggested that, to act as a deterrent, higher fines should be imposed upon offenders. For example, a minimum of Dh50,000 in cases involving companies.

Currently, while the law stipulates that fines as high as Dh10 million can be imposed, in reality, companies are fined as little as Dh1,000, she said.

Ms Moosa also recommended the introduction of procedures allowing judges to confiscate manufacturing equipment found responsible for causing harm to the environment.

The researcher also said that training public prosecutors in environmental law could result in more cases being brought before the courts.

Public prosecution at present lacks the capacity to properly deal with the area, she said.

Another step could be to allow citizens to approach the courts directly, without using the public prosecution as an intermediary, which is currently the case in the UAE.

Laws in Egypt, for example, allow members of the public or other organisations to directly appeal to the courts, which then ask the public prosecution to investigate cases, said Ms Moosa, who is already a practising lawyer in Dubai.

Professor Zein El-Abidin Rizk, Ms Moosa’s thesis supervisor, said the study was very important because it represented a first of its kind to look into environmental crimes.

Although the existing law is strict, there are not enough procedures detailing how to implement it, he said.

That was one reason behind the small number of court cases discovered by Ms Moosa, he said, adding that he hoped the study would raise awareness among government officials of the need to act.