Introduction
The purpose of the ASEAN Environmental Rights Working Group is to develop a regional framework on environmental rights, which will be submitted to AICHR for further discussion. AICHR will then consult ASEAN Sectoral Bodies relevant to the environment, particularly the ASEAN Senior Officials on Environment (ASOEN), for consideration before eventual adoption by ASEAN leaders.
ARIEL was engaged at the request of the Secretariat of the ASEAN Environmental Rights Working Group to prepare a number of background reports for consideration by the Working Group. These background documents were table at the various meetings of the Working Group in 2023 and 2024. Funding for this work was provided by the USAID Mekong for the Future project coordinated by WWF.
ARIEL has been privileged to support the Secretariat and the Working Group in the development of the draft declaration.
Prior to the establishment of the AER Working Group by AICHR, ARIEL also presented at a number of meetings and webinars outlining some of the key issues to be considered in the proposed framework on environmental rights. Matthew Baird, Director of ARIEL, and Roger Joseph (Rocky) Guzman, Deputy Director of ARIEL, have spoken at many forums and conferences on the environmental rights framework.
We examined two elements of environmental rights - procedural elements and substantive elements.
●Procedural Elements
Access to justice and remedies
Access to environmental information
Rights for Public Participation
Promoting free, prior and informed consent for indigenous and local communities
Providing special attention to women, children and vulnerable groups
Supporting rights for environmental and human rights defenders
●Substantive
Supporting Indigenous Communities and the UNDRIP
Implementing recognised environmental law principles
Enhancing EIA, SEA, and Transboundary EIA
Supporting ASEAN standards on environmental quality, e.g air, water, and noise pollution standards
Protecting the environment, including biodiversity, forests, corals, mangroves, seagrasses, oceans and fisheries.
Matthew Baird and Rocky Guzman also drafted articles and assisted in key reports on the development of access rights in Asia and the Pacific. The Technical Report and Recommendations to Strengthen Environmental Impact Assessment Procedures in ASEAN (May 2022) examined practical ways to strengthen EIA in ASEAN to take into account environmental and human rights.
An additional report examined the feasibility of the Pacific's legal and institutional context and capacities concerning the potential development of a sub-regional instrument on access rights. The first part of this study examines the international frameworks for the access rights elements. The second part analyses the regional mechanisms within the Pacific, and the third part looks at stakeholders in the Pacific and provides recommendations for the future. The study is presented in light of the recognition that human rights and the environment are intertwined and interconnected. The growing discussion that a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a precondition to exercising and enjoying human rights led to the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution in October 2021 recognising the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right.
In October 2021, Matthew presented at the LAWASIA Human Rights Conference on procedural rights and the case for an Asian agreement on access rights. Access rights include access to information, public participation, and remedies and justice. This presentation examined the importance of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 1992, the Arhus Convention, and the Escazu Agreement.
ARIEL and other development partners developed a briefing note in September 2022. This briefing note outlined the key elements to include in an ASEAN environmental rights framework.
