The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette a decision issuing the Form of the System of Real Estate Owners Associations that is intended to be binding on Real Estate Owners Associations and read alongside the System of the Apartments and Floors Ownership and its executive regulation.
Decree Monthly Digest is a summary of the most significant updates on Decree in the previous month.
Royal Decrees
Six royal decrees were issued in February, with the most significant being those related to the restructuring of the health sector in Oman, which are Royal Decree 10/2024 Determining the Competences of the Ministry of Health and Adopting Its Organisational Structure and Royal Decree 11/2024 Establishing the University Medical City and Promulgating Its System. Also for the first time since October 2022, the government awarded concessions over new oil blocks through Royal Decrees 8/2024 and 9/2024.
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Intel Update: February 2024
Decree Intel is a database of original Omani legal research material that provides explanatory notes, overviews of government entities, and summaries of Supreme Court cases and MJLA Fatwas.
New Content
Fatwa Summary: MJLA Fatwa 192721181 (SAI Confidential Emails): The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs (MJLA) deemed that the State Audit Institute (SAI) has a duty to release the confidential emails of a third-party held in its possession to support the defence of the government against the claims made by that third-party in an arbitration case.
Case Summary: Supreme Court (Labour Circuit) Contestation 717/2016 (Verbal Insult to Employer): An Omani employee was terminated from his job for insulting a manager in the presence of other employees. He sued his employer for unfair dismissal and demanded compensation. The Supreme Court ruled that the termination of employment was valid, emphasising that any form of assault affecting a person’s dignity is deemed grievous under article 40(8) of the Labour Law of 2003.
The Secretariat General for National Celebrations: The Secretariat General for National Celebrations (الأمانة العامة للاحتفالات الوطنية) is the entity responsible for organising national celebrations in the country.
The Ministry of Health: The Ministry of Health (وزارة الصحة) is the body responsible for developing healthcare policies as well as managing and directing the delivery of health services in the country.
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Ban of Plastic Shopping Bags
The Environment Authority issued this week Decision 8/2024 Banning the Use of Plastic Shopping Bags as part of the efforts of the government to protect the environment. This decision repeals Decision 23/2020, which previously outright banned all single-use plastic bags.
The Personal Data Protection Law requires that all controllers identify a personal data protection officer and that the information of this officer is communicated to data subjects prior to processing any of their data. The specific details required for the implementation of this obligation have now been clarified in the Executive Regulation of the Personal Data Protection Law. This blog post will highlight the key elements of this obligation.
The Personal Data Protection Law recognises the need for special controls in regard to certain types of datasets such as health and biometric data due to their sensitivity. This blog post will outline the provisions relating to this sensitive data. It is worth noting that the law has also other categories of personal data that have their own controls, namely children data, which will not be covered by this post.
The Personal Data Protection Law has introduced a number of unique rights to data subjects that we have not seen in Oman before, the mechanism by which these rights can be enforced has now been clarified in the recently issued Executive Regulation of the Personal Data Protection Law. This blog post will provide an outline of some of the most important data subjects’ rights and the mechanism for enforcing them.
Data breach provisions fall squarely between cybersecurity and data protection. Under article 3 of the Cybercrime Law, the unauthorised access to an electronic system is deemed a criminal offense, but this law did not impose any obligations on any party to notify the victim or to take any measure to minimise the impact of the breach. The Personal Data Protection Law and its newly issued executive regulation attempt to fill this gap in the hope of protecting the rights of victims of data breach incidents.
After almost 2 years from the issuance of the Personal Data Protection Law, the Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette the long-awaited Executive Regulation of the Personal Data Protection Law. When the Personal Data Protection Law was issued in 2022, it was a groundbreaking development for the Omani legal system since it was the first comprehensive privacy legislation to be issued in the country, however, due to the fact that the law left many of the practical implementation details to the executive regulation, many organisations in Oman had struggled waiting in frustration as they were unable to comply because the regulation was not issued, which was extremely problematic because this law grants the courts the power to impose fines up to 500,000 Rial Omani against those who fail to comply with the law.
I hope that I can say that the wait is finally over now that the regulation is finally out, but, realistically speaking, it will probably take the government at least several months to be able to create the processes required for them to receive and process applications relating to the permits envisioned by the law, and for this reason, the decision issuing the executive regulation has given another 1 year grace period for all parties involved to comply with the regulation and, by association, comply with the law.
This blog post will highlight some of the key features of the new regulation.
The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette a decision regulating financial transfers made to advocates as part of the national government efforts in the area of combating anti-money laundering and terrorism fraud schemes.
The new decision requires law firms to receive any payments equal to or exceeding the value of 500 Rial Omani through bank transfers only. For amounts less than 500 Rial Omani, it is permitted for law firms to receive cash payments provided that a receipt is issued in regard to the payment confirming the amount received and the purpose of the payment. Violations of this new decision will be considered violations of the Law of Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing.
This new decision enters into force tomorrow. You can read it in full in English on the link below: