As we wrap up the month of December, we thought it would be fun to ask members of the Decree team to tell us about the legal developments that they personally found to be most interesting in the year 2024. To allow for some diversity in the answers, nobody was allowed to mention the new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law in their answers, since this was the biggest legislative development for the legal profession in Oman in a very long time.
The law that I found most interesting in the year 2024 was the National Records Law, a brand new law for Oman intended to facilitate the work of ROP’s National Record Centre. If this project succeeds, Oman should have a single data point for retrieving key Omani datasets in a manner that facilitates the creation of more reliable digital services in Oman. MTCIT’s Executive Regulation of the Personal Data Protection Law was also extremely important to finally enable everyone to attempt to comply with the Personal Data Protection Law (even though there is no evidence that the law is being implemented). A third legislative development, which hasn’t actually taken place yet, is the upcoming National Artificial Intelligence Policy that the MTCIT floated for public consultation this year, which will not be a legally binding document, but is an interesting attempt by Oman to regulate the use of AI.
The piece of legislation that I found most interesting in 2024 is Royal Decree 28/2024, which established the Omani Waqf Establishment. This is the first time a waqf establishment was created by royal decree, which I consider to be an indication of the formal realisation by the government that waqf can be used as a legitimate medium for both economic and philanthropic development in the country. While we always had a Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, the role of MARA in the area of waqf has appeared mostly to oversee the operation of waqf by other people. This new Omani Waqf Establishment has the mandate of actually investing awqaf and establishing companies with the aim of investing awqaf, which will hopefully professionalise the sector and take it to the next level.
Mohammed Al-Farsi
Legal Associate
At the start of this year, I predicted that the Ministry of Labour would issue and update some of the labour regulations and decisions relating to the law, and even though we did not see new regulations relating to temporary work, part-time work, or remote work, the Ministry of Labour did issue 10 decisions and regulations covering a variety of labour issues such as the Procedures and Controls for Dealing with Private Sector Establishments that Violate the Provisions of the Labour Law and the Decisions Implementing It, the Rules for Settlement and Abandonment of Lawsuits for Crimes Punishable under the Labour Law, and the System of Complaints and Grievances. Some of these were revamps that were required to be aligned with the new Labour Law, but some were also new regulations for areas previously not governed under the old Labour Law such as Decision 730/2024 Regulating the Temporary Transfer of Non-Omani Manpower Between Private Sector Establishments. You can read all these interesting, and important, decisions by the Ministry of Labour on this link.
In my opinion, one of the most significant laws that were issued this year is the Media Law. The law completely redefined the framework for governing the media industry in Oman, reaffirmed media freedoms such as the freedom of opinion and expression, and removed the majority of restrictions that previously existed. To me, the developments brought by this new law are a positive step towards the realisation of the rights recognised by the Basic Statute of the State and the aspirations for the creation of a real media industry as suggested by article 6 of the law that encourages the media to convey its message with objectivity and honesty. The law was issued towards the end of the year, and the executive regulation of the law has not been issued yet. It would be extremely interesting to see how the executive regulation of this law would contribute to achieving the grand objectives of this new law.
Aram Al-Bahri
Legal Associate
The year 2025 is expected to have even bigger legal developments. To stay up to date with new laws as they come out, make sure that you follow Decree on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter.