RIYADH, 17 April 2007 — Judges in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will soon be evaluated according to their performance and their adherence to the law. A unified inspection law is currently being drafted by the Secretariat General of the GCC, Arab News has learned.
A committee consisting of representatives of the justice ministries of the GCC countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — met here yesterday to discuss the preliminary points before meeting again in June to prepare the final law. Bahrain’s representative did not attend the meeting.
The committee discussed the current inspection measures in courts in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman. The Kuwaiti representative did not provide the committee with details of court procedures in his country. “The committee observed that many of the laws in GCC states regarding court inspections were similar,” a statement by the GCC justice committee said.
According to Farhan Al-Ruwaili, head of the research and legislation department in the GCC Secretariat General, the draft of the new law, which will be known as the Unified Court Inspection Law in GCC Countries, will be sent to the ministries of justice in all member states once the committee had made its final recommendations. The ministers will then send their recommendations to the Supreme GCC Commission, which will present it for approval by GCC leaders at the next summit in Muscat.
“The new law will include announced and unannounced inspection visits to courts in GCC countries to make sure that judges are following the law,” Al-Ruwaili added.
He said that the committee had recommended that the new inspection law be linked to supreme justice councils in GCC countries and not to the ministries of justice, thus enabling inspectors to have greater independence in their movement. Judges would answer to supreme justice councils rather than to ministries.
