UAE

Free legal advice for poor in the works

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department is negotiating with lawyers to develop a free legal service for the poor.

Anealla Safdar

November 22, 2008

  • English
  • Arabic

ABU DHABI // The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department is negotiating with lawyers to develop a free legal service for the poor to improve access to justice, officials said yesterday. Mohammed al Shatteri, assistant undersecretary for judicial support, said he wanted to form partnerships with lawyers' offices locally, regionally and internationally to set up the pro-bono service.

Mr Shatteri said they would "work on providing services with convenience and ease to needy customers". The department also announced plans to provide a free childcare service to customers and staff at its Mussafah Street building by the end of next March. Mr Shatteri said the ADJD found many mothers had been unable to go to its offices, so it decided to provide staff and customers with the service.

"ADJD will work with crèche administration experts to create babysitting facilities with the highest comfort and convenience, reflecting the department's desire to cater to the needs of the society in general and the mothers in particular. Twenty-two per cent of the department's workforce are women. Under the new plan, working mothers would be able to visit their children during the day to check they are being well looked after.

asafdar@thenational.ae

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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.

“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”

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