Machnouk: The Approval of the Decree Establishing an Environmental Control will contribute to adjust the abuses and irregularities

Mohammad Machnouk, the minister of environment, announced in a statement that: “The approval of the decree establishing an environmental control, by the council of ministers, is an accomplishment completing to the law of the allocation of public environmental lawyers and investigative judges in environmental affairs.” stressing that “The approval of the decree will help in controlling the environmental crimes and implementation of judicial warrants and judgments and judicial diary against the perpetrators of environmental crimes.” He explained that ”The subsequent step to start working in the environmental control, is that immediately after the publication of the decree of the official journal, he will contact the civil service council and the council of ministers to take the necessary approval for a competition in order to recruit the forty environmental observers who , according to the decree, must be of a high school diploma- general science or life sciences branches and fluent in Arabic, in addition to mastering a French or English languages and proficiency in the use of computers. He added “After the designation of the succeeded environmental observers interns, they must follow a six-month training conducted by the National Institute of Management including a theoretical section related to environmental texts, environmental damage and assets of controlling environmental violations and the relationship with the public defenders environmentalist, and a practical section addressing how to detect environmental crime scene and how to deal with environmental disasters. In order to be accepted, the interns must succeed in the training session, and the environmental observers have to swear before they start their work, in front of the first President of the Court of Appeal in Beirut, the following oath: “I swear by almighty God that I will perform my duties honestly, impartially and faithfully and to stay up on the application of laws and regulations and to safeguard the secrets and dignity of the job”.