Support for the ASEAN Declaration on Environmental Rights and submission of comments to the public consultation.
The 4th meeting of the ASEAN Environmental Rights Working Group (AER WG) was held on May 6-8, 2024 at the ASEAN Headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo courtest of ASEAN.org
At Conservation-Litigation.org, we work to advance environmental rights by exploring and demystifying the “nitty gritty” of taking legal action. We also recognise that regional and global frameworks and declarations can also help to uphold standards and drive greater ambition.
ASEAN is leading the way with its Draft declaration on environmental rights. The draft ASEAN declaration is being developed by the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR)’s Working Group on Environmental Rights. They have been tasked to develop a draft regional framework on environmental rights that not only restates existing ASEAN commitments and international obligations, but also advances the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
Importantly, the draft declaration recognises the right to secure remedies when nature is harmed. This right is already recognised in the national legislation of several ASEAN countries, and the declaration has potential to strengthen and expand its reach.
We are pleased to submit our comments on the draft, as part of the public consultation. In our submission, we address key considerations about what types of rights have a right to remedy, and who can take legal action. We highlight:
The importance of articulating the right to remedies when nature is harmed – including not only harm to privately-owned goods, but also harm to public resources such as biodiversity, rivers, national parks and the atmosphere;
The opportunity to promote broad standing, so that government, citizens and civil society can act in the public interest to protect and remedy nature, and
That recognising environmental rights also requires explicitly recognising the diverse types of value for nature that people hold – not only consumptive and economic values, but also values linked to wellbeing, identify, sense of place and culture.
This ASEAN initiative reflects a broader move to recognise the human right to a clean and healthy environment: The International Criminal Court recent started an effort to better address the environmental harms caused by crimes listed under the Rome Statute (e.g., genocide), and there is a new call for the establishment of a Protocol to the European Convention onHuman Rights on the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. We look forward to seeing how these new initiatives develop, so that they can strengthen the foundations for legal action.