DUBAI (Dispatches) – The United Arab Emirates on Saturday said a new criminal code would come into force in January as part of what it called the most sweeping legal reform in the Persian Gulf state’s history.
State news agency WAM reported the government is changing 40 laws this year. It did not make clear, however, which of the changes - which concern commercial companies, online security, trade, copyright, residency, narcotics and social issues - were new and which had been previously reported.
One change that appears new is the ratification of a Federal Crime and Punishment Law, effective from Jan. 2, 2022, designed to better protect women, domestic staff and public safety.
The UAE wants to reform its legal system to keep a competitive edge as conservative Persian Gulf neighbor Saudi Arabia opens itself up to foreign investment.
Even though the country claims to be a Muslim nation, major changes so far included decriminalizing premarital sexual relations and alcohol consumption – which are against Islamic sharia laws – and cancelling provisions for leniency when dealing with so-called “honor killings” in November 2020.
Other recent changes by the UAE include introducing longer-term visas as a way to attract and retain talent and encourage more businesses to set up shop.
The emirate of Abu Dhabi this month introduced its own reform - a novel secular family law - aimed at making itself attractive to expatriates.
Several rights organizations have issued bleak reports on human rights record in the UAE.
Human Rights Watch in its latest report has slammed Abu Dhabi’s wide scale crackdown including on domestic critics, researchers, academics and UN experts.
Domestic critics are routinely arrested, said the report, pointing out that UAE’s crackdown has become worse since at least 2015 when authorities began to ignore or deny requests for access to the country by UN experts, human rights researchers, cri tical academics and journalists.