NEWS
In A Study on The Reality of Transitioning to A Green Economy in GCC Two Academics at UoB Recommend the Establishment of a Prosecution and Police Force for Environmental Crimes
Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Yasmeen Khalaf)
13 August 2023
A scientific study in the Public Law Department of the College of Law at the University of Bahrain (UoB) recommended increasing reconciliation in environmental crimes, using the terms “green forensic science” and “green crimes”, establishing an environment police, and a special prosecution for environmental crimes.
This came in a study titled: “The Reality of Transitioning to a Green Economy in the GCC Countries and Its Criminal Protection”, conducted by: Assistant Professor of Criminal Law, Dr. Noora Mohammed Al-Shamlan, and Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Finance, Dr. Abduljabbar Ahmed Al-Tayeb.
The study findings, published in the Journal of Business and Law of Al Ain University in the United Arab Emirates, concluded that the Kingdom of Bahrain ranked third in the Gulf, and 56 globally out of 180 countries in the environmental performance index, calling on the Bahraini legislator to clearly address the responsibility of the legal person in the legislation, to prevent interpretations in understanding such responsibility.
The study recommended that central banks oblige commercial banks and Islamic banks to impose conditions for investment financing, to ensure their use in environmentally friendly projects, and the need to issue legislation requiring reliance on renewable energy in all GCC countries, in order to reduce the damage resulting from the use of other resources that increase carbon emissions.
In addition, it also recommended forming committees to monitor the quality of water and air, constructing more dams, the exploiting seasonal rainwater, which can be used for agricultural purposes, and forming a joint higher central committee for the green economy between the GCC countries, whose mission would be to propose strategic directions and follow up on all planned projects, in addition to evaluating their economic, social and environmental outcomes.
Moreover, the study suggested adopting updates in Western jurisprudence in the field of criminal sciences, such as the term “green forensic science”, and the resulting sciences, being modern sciences concerned – in a large part – with achieving sustainable development, which is one of the urgent goals of law at the present time, along with the adoption of the term “green crimes”, to differentiate between this type of crime that affects the green economy in part, and environmental crimes in broader sense.
The study saw value in expanding the settlement of environmental crimes by conciliation with the administration, in order to activate modern criminal justice systems and criminal mediation as directed by the Bahraini legislator, as the purpose of punishment in this type of crime does not – primarily – achieve public deterrence, as much as it aims to preserve the environment, restore it to its previous state, and seeks to achieve the objective of environmental laws in the transition to a green economy.
