Civil Society Calls On ASEAN to Strengthen Protection for Vulnerable Groups in New Environmental Rights Declaration

4 November 2024 –  The ASEAN Environmental Rights Working Group (AER Working Group) has finalized the ASEAN declaration on the right to a safe, clean, [healthy], and sustainable environment, which is currently being reviewed and discussed by the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). 

Civil society groups are concerned about the pressing environmental degradation and destruction in the ASEAN region that infringes on both human and environmental rights. It is imperative that ASEAN member states (AMS) take strong, coordinated action to address these impacts effectively. Central to this effort is the need to protect and support environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) and indigenous peoples, who are on the front lines of defending our environment but face substantial risks and threats in their efforts. 

Based on consultations and formal submissions to the working group by stakeholders, civil society groups have developed the “ASEAN People’s Declaration on Environmental Rights”. The People’s Declaration seeks to ensure that many elements can be considered in light of the public calls and consultations, and facilitate the continuing conversation around environmental rights in the region. The People’s Declaration aims to embody principles that respond to the environmental and human rights challenges in the ASEAN, and to foster a participatory and inclusive process that ensures marginalized and vulnerable groups have meaningful involvement. Proponents call upon AICHR and AMS to use the People’s Declaration as a benchmark and to incorporate the following key elements into the current draft under deliberation: 

1) Protect and recognize EHRDs and indigenous peoples: Recognize and ensure that these common and internationally used terms are in the text. AMS urgently needs to protect these groups who defend and promote environmental rights from threats, attacks, intimidation, criminalization, and/or lawsuits against them; 

2) Enforce environmental rights both from procedural and substantive aspects: Incorporate safeguards on the issues of clean air and transboundary haze, pollution control and a non-toxic environment, climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience, healthy ecosystems and biodiversity, land degradation, desertification, and drought, water, oceans and marine environment, coastal zones; 

3) Promote Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Promote EIAs as a robust framework and legal document that is transparent, accessible, and understandable for everyone.

4) Recognize and commit to protecting vulnerable groups: AMS should recognise and commit to strengthening the link between environmental rights, human rights, and protection for vulnerable and marginalized groups, including but not limited to women, children, the elderly, Indigenous peoples, local communities, persons with disabilities, gender and sexually diverse communities, etc. 

5) Emphasize a human rights approach in the implementation of environmental rights: AMS should integrate human rights approaches to achieve a comprehensive implementation of environmental rights. 

In addition, civil society groups call on AICHR to enhance transparency and accountability in the process of developing the ASEAN declaration by making the drafts of the declaration publicly available to foster transparency and allow for meaningful public engagement. ASEAN should also engage with a broad range of stakeholders, including civil society organizations, in an inclusive manner through further consultations. 

Background Information 

Since 2021, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has recognized the need for Southeast Asian countries to possess an instrument promoting environmental rights. The AICHR then formed the ASEAN Environmental Rights Working Group (AER Working Group), which has been developing the document. 

In November 2022, the Ad Hoc Preparatory Session of the ASEAN Environmental Rights Framework and the Interim Working Group (IWG) Meeting were conducted, which was then marked as the first milestone of the ASEAN Environmental Rights Working Group (AER WG) official establishment in 2023. This current first-ever environmental rights instrument development is led by AICHR, with technical support from the Asian Research Institute for Environmental Law (ARIEL), UNEP, UNESCAP, and OHCHR. 

Since 2022, the AER WG has conducted five Working Group Meetings, the most recent held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from July 1st to 3rd, 2024. The working group has submitted a draft to AICHR for further review and discussion. AICHR will then consult with ASEAN Sectoral Bodies relevant to the environment, particularly the ASEAN Senior Officials on Environment (ASOEN). The final step is the eventual adoption by ASEAN leaders in the ASEAN Summit. 

Initially conceived as a comprehensive 17-page potentially legally binding framework, the draft was reduced to a 9-page non-binding declaration. While a declaration still carries political weight, the content of the text remains subject to further deliberation and approval by AICHR and ASEAN member states. 

For more information, please contact: 

• Max Han, ASEAN Youth Forum (secretariat@aseanyouthforum.org), Malaysia and Singapore
• Prilia Kartika Apsari, Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (prili@icel.or.id), Indonesia
• Rocky Guzmán, Asian Research Institute for Environmental Law, (rocky@arielaw.asia), Philippines 
• Lia Mai Torres, Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders, (lia@apned.net), Philippines

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