The First Arab International
Conference & Exhibition
on
Environmental Legislation
Organized by the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment Protection (PME)
(Legislation in the support
Of the Environment)
2-4Rajab 1429 H
Riyadh 5-7 July 2008
Introduction
Environmental problems became an international concern, disturbing scientists, thinkers and educated people throughout the world, but it also became a popular concern, about mankind's damaging actions and behaviours that led to extreme environmental deterioration as a result of an excessive exploitation of natural resources which were created and gifted by God, who granted it in various ways for mankind's benefit, for satisfying its different needs throughout the ages in addition to its multiplicity. Environment deterioration has many impacts upon human, animal, and plant health, which led to exhaustion of the natural resources and environmental imbalance on the earth. God created man, made him the successor upon the earth and created the environment for the benefit and satisfaction of man. God ordered man to protect the environment against damages, protect it from destruction and deterioration; said God “Don't be obedient to the wasters whom are spoiling over the earth and they don't prepare". The Prophet’s sayings also call for saving, moderation, and discarding of wasting; said the Prophet (peace and prayer be upon him), "provident doesn't become poor” and also said "saving upon expenses is half of the livelihood".
There are many environmental problems that must be resolved or their impact mitigated such as water, air, soil pollution, food shortage, and spread of epidemics and diseases (as result of poor sanitation), extinction of many types of plants and animals, climate changing, and ozone damage. These problems escalated as a result of the mankind's misuse, also as a result of distancing from Islam's directions and instructions which firstly aim to reparation, construction, conciliation with the environment by preserving it from pollution and excessive exhaustion of its natural resources in order to maintain cleaned and secured environment for the current and coming generations in order to achieve consistent development.
To reach the above-mentioned goals, our environmental legislations and regulations must be developed, that could ensure us with a proper environment for mankind and other creatures over our planet which it is a gift from God in order to maintain our lives upon it in peace and security. The environmental law is defined as regulation to protect and develop the environment, and to deter destruction of the environment. That could not be possible without the cooperation and solidarity between all of us in various stages of the life for preventing and limiting pollution and excessive exhaustion of the natural resources. This issue needs a broad solidarity and unity between governments, public, groups, and individuals, in a joint factor regardless of religions, languages, and ethnicity, or our political barriers or any other obstacles except “environment”.
Therefore, this the Arabian First International Conference for Environmental Legislation under the supervision of General Presidency of Meteorology and Environment Protection and the sponsorship of His Royal Highness Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Vice Premier and Minister of Defense and the Air Force and General Inspector has been organised. The importance of this conference that it is the first event in the Kingdom to search for and study the legal and legislative aspects that relate to protection of the environment on account of development with participation of a great number of experts and specialists on international and Arabic levels, for setting up the standards and criteria and building the international and Arabian cooperation basics~ developing the environmental legislations, extending efforts for enhancing human capacity in this field, inform the intended specialized authorities about the importance of environmental legislations and law enforcement which will support and activate the efforts of preserving the environment and natural resources by benefiting from the previous international and regional experiences and experiments.
This conference brings together several official and non-official bodies domestically, regionally, and internationally. Also the conference will be attended by a large and distinguished audience of scientific and media representatives, in addition to the exhibition which contains the latest documents, special technology of environmental preparation and training and awareness programs.
Conference Importance
The purposes of the conference and the events are to illuminate the impact of the relationship between the environment, legislations, regulations, and the observed procedures for ensuring the effective implementation of the environmental legislation from the relevant authorities in the Kingdom; ways of environmental monitoring and updating through participation and transparency in order to obtain environmental integration; and, development for improving the environment and lifestyle while securing the required natural resources in such a way as to ensure sustainable development.
Conference objectives
·Ensuring the role of environmental laws and legislations in bringing integration between environmental variables and economic development in order to achieve sustainable development.
· Augment environmental law awareness in sectors involved in different of economic development fields
· Establishing an Arabic forum which includes all those concerned with environment and its legislative aspects to promote capacity building and experience exchange.
·Studying and analyzing law and legislation required to conserve and protect natural resources.
·Activating the role of government and non government organizations in implementing legislations responsible for environmental protection and realizing maximum coordination between them.
·Establishing a data base for legislation and environmental laws in Arab countries in cooperation with International Organizations.
2nd day :Sunday , July6, 2008 (Rajab 3, 1429 H)
Conference Outputs
The conference outputs can briefly be summarised as:
1Providing information about the environmental bilateral multi-parties conventions, legislations and laws.
2 To reach an operational mechanism for addressing and resolving environmental problems.
3 To enhance cooperation between the Arab and international countries for providing support to the national and regional organizations and authorities in order to activate the cooperation between them in the field of environmental legislations and the relevant conventions.
4 Encouraging the principle of partnership between the private, public, and civil community.
5 For building national and regional human capacity in field of environmental legislations and the relevant conventions.
6 Initiating the establishment of a regional centre specifically for environmental legislations and the relevant conventions that will contain an environmental database.
7 To lay out an Arabian environmental strategy that contains the required mechanisms and fundamentals for protecting the environment in Arab countries. This is to be developed depending on the environmental legislations and the relevant conventions.
Conference Session Axes
First Axis: National Legislations
Environmental legislations and laws and the means of enforcement
-The role of environmental legislation for achieving integration between preserving the environment and economic development.
-Researching and analyzing the domestic environmental legislations.
-The required role of the judicial institutions and executive bodies to enforce the environmental regulations and legislation for the purpose of protecting the environment.
-Research for establishing an environmental court and police.
-Environmental legislation in Islam.
-Training and capacity building for judges in the field of environmental legislations.
Second Axis: Regional Legislations
Development of environmental legislations for preserving the safety of the environment and enhancing sustainable development:
- Reviewing the successful international and Arabian experiments in enacting and enforcement of environmental laws and legislations.
-The importance of developing the environmental legislations and laws for supporting the environmental protection and maintaining natural resources.
-The importance of the latest technologies which conform to the environment and clean production technology.
-The environmental legislations and their impact upon industrial performance in the Arab countries.
-The indications of the quality of the environmental performance and the international rehabilitation for organizations.
-Some of the applied environmental programs in some Arab countries.
-Informing on the environmental standards and applying the environmental inspection through activating the special roles of environmental general regulations.
-The role of legislations in supporting and developing the environmental and developmental institutions, enhancing human capacity building and establishing the concept of environmental citizenship.
-Adequacy of the enforcement of the environmental laws and international conventions against the climate and environmental challenges.
-Developing an Arabic environmental strategy that includes mechanisms and fundamentals for developing and maintaining Arabic environments depending on the environmental legislations and laws and the international and regional criteria.
-Discussing the establishment of a database in the field of Arabic environmental legislations and laws in the Arab regional centre for environmental laws in Kuwait.
Third Axis: International Legislations
Legislative and Institutional Requirements for Protecting Natural Resources
- The importance of enforcement of the environmental laws and conventions upon international, regional and domestic levels for limiting environmental deterioration.
- The role of the international environmental laws and conventions in maintaining the environment and its natural component related to biological diversity and the proper administration of the protected areas.
-The role of the international, regional and domestic organizations, and civil organizations for activating environmental laws and building a legal awareness for serving the environment and enhancing the importance of environmental care as a basis for sustainable development.
-The principles of Islamic laws and legislations that are intended for preserving the environment and their role upon resolving environmental problems.
-The sustainable utilisation of natural resources within the framework of Islamic laws and their contribution in maintaining the environment.
-The role of media and means of communications for promoting the awareness and environmental education generally and of the legal awareness particularly in the sphere of maintaining the environment.
3rd day: Monday ,7 July 2008, 4 Rajab, 1429 H)
Round table discussions and workshops
1st workshop
Status of training in environmental legislation and developing environmental judiciary in Arab countries
· The status of environmental legislation and laws in the Arab universities.
· Enhancing a new career of authorized environmental judges.
· The role of mass-media in environmental education.
· Present situation of education and training programs in environmental laws.
2nd workshop
Status of Arab and International cooperation in the field of environmental legislations
· Review of current state of Arab cooperation in the field of environmental legislations.
· Activating cooperation and partnership among government institutions and civil society organizations in the Arab world.
· Review of environmental cooperation mechanisms implemented by international funds and donor organizations.
3rd workshop
Research development and monitoring in the area of legislation in the Arab countries
· Status of research and monitoring
· Mechanism of cooperation in the areas of research development and monitoring.
About the Confrence
Invited experts and distinguished guests enjoy the following;
· Free registration.
· Free travel and accommodation in 5 stars hotel.
· Transportation from Riyadh airport to the hotel and daily transportation to the conference venue.
Participation
Expected participating experts:
Elite of Arab professionals, academics and international experts Arab and international specialists in the field of environmental laws and legislations.
Saudi Organizations expected to participate:
· Ministries and establishments involved in the field of environmental and natural resources conservation.
· Ministries and establishments involved in the implementation of environmental laws.
· Colleges, departments and institutions involved in the fields of environment and environmental research.
· Researchers and people interested in the environment and the application of environmental laws.
· Ministries of Industries and establishments involved activities related to environment and natural resources.
Arab Organizations expected to participate:
· Environmental Ministries and commissions.
· Technical office of the council of Ministers of Arab countries involved in environmental affairs.
· United Nations environment programme.
· Arab Organization for Industrial Development and Mining.
· National Commissions for Wildlife Conservations and Development.
· Arab Organization for Education, Science and Culture.
· Islamic Organization for Education, Science and culture.
· United Nations Food and Agriculture organization.
· Arab Universities (Colleges of Law and Environment Professors).
· Arab and Foreign Environmental centres.
· Arab, regional and international government and non governmental organizations.
· Businessmen, investors and private companies in different fields.
· People responsible in different media and satellite channel
Guidelines for papers and research submissions:
Papers must not exceed 20 pages and full research articles must not exceed 30 pages in length including the list of references. The following must be taken into account when preparing papers:
· Upper and lower margins to be 2.5 cm, the right margin 3.5 cm and the left margin 2.5 cm.
· Research reports and papers must be typed in Traditional Arabic and titles in Times New Roman with a font size between 16-20 points.
· The following must be included with each scientific participation;
1. An electronic copy of the paper or research report in a 3.5” diskette or in a CD.
2. An abstract of the paper or the research in both Arabic and English on a single page.
3. The deadline for the abstract submission in its final form is 30 April 2008 which corresponds to 24th Rabie Alawal 1429H.
4. The deadline for the full paper submission is 31 May 2008 corresponding to 26 Jumada I 1429H.
5. The registration forms must be sent to the specified Conference Postal Address, Fax or Email.
Environmental technology and legislation exhibition
The environmental technology and legislation exhibition will be held in parallel with the symposium events and will be open for the following bodies and authorities:
· Specialized University Faculties and Research Centers in environmental sciences.
· Local and regional banks and financial institutions.
· Regional and international donor organizations.
· National, regional and international trade companies concerned with environment.
· Mass-media establishments.
· National, Arab , regional and international institutions and organizations related with environmental domain.
Objectives of the Exhibition:
The exhibition aims to achieve the following:
· Creating suitable opportunities for interaction between the participants, businessmen, hosts and producers in different fields related to environmental conservation.
· Allowing general establishments, Ministries, Commissions and Organizations to be aware and select the most up to date equipment especially those used in the field of household, industrial and medical waste disposals.
Exhibition
The exhibition is composed of the following sections:
Pollution Control Section:
This section specialises in pollution and its different forms and the instruments used in measuring pollution and techniques used in controlling different kinds of pollution.
Environment and Energy Technology Section:
The universities, research centres and specialised companies in the field of environmental training, environmental impact and rehabilitation will be participating in this department.
Environmental Establishments and Organizations Section:
The organizations, establishments and commissions involved in environmental conservation together with the establishments of the civil community concerned with environmental conservation will be actively involved in this section.
Solid and Liquid Wastes Management Section:
In this section the research centres and companies working in the fields of management of industrial wastes and dangerous medical wastes; Management of liquid and solid wastes and civil wastes; and Technologies of recycling waste disposal.
Agriculture and Environment Section:
This section deals with the companies and departments working with arid agriculture, organic agriculture, and nutrition, water managements, irrigation systems, genetically engineered crops and environmental systems rehabilitation.
Water technology Section:
This section concentrates on showing activities of companies and involved establishments working in the field of water treatment, water purification, sewage water treatment and techniques of measuring water quality.
Partnership Section:
In this sections suitable meetings rooms will be provided for individual meetings between the conference participants and stakeholders in order to investigate the possibility of establishing partnership contracts in different environmental activities between businessmen and the governments, international organizations and non-governmental organization representatives.
International Arab Symposium & Exhibition
Environmental Legislation
Organized by the Presidency of Meteorology
and
Environment Protection (PME)
(Legislation in defense of the Environment)
Riyadh 2-4 Rajab 1429H 5-7 June 2008
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Indicate your participation: conference or exhibition
Contact Information
Koubaa Mohamed
General Coordinator
Khalid Al Sunaid & Talal Al Ahmadi
Counselors & Attorneys At Law
Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
Tel:+966 1 4623100 –14601313
Fax;+966 1 211100
Mobile:+966556836438
Email : koubaa_mohamed@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.aiceel.org
