Calls grow to turn ASEAN’s landmark environment rights pledge into action

KUALA LUMPUR: Policymakers and civil society groups have urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to turn its new Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment into tangible action, warning that the landmark agreement risks remaining symbolic without enforcement measures.

The declaration, endorsed at the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, marks the bloc's first formal formal recognition of environmental protection as a human right. But the instrument is not legally binding, prompting calls for a robust Regional Plan of Action (RPA) to ensure implementation and accountability.

Former Malaysian Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad acknowledged concerns over the declaration’s non-binding nature but said expecting ASEAN to function like the European Union was unrealistic.

“As much as we’d like to think ASEAN is another EU, it is not,” he he said at a media and diplomatic briefing co-organised by the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and Greenpeace. “We have absolute monarchies, one-party states and countries that have never changed governments. So we can’t expect the same kind of institutions or enforcement.”

AICHR chair Edmund Bon called for stronger engagement from the bloc’s dialogue partners to promote corporate accountability.

Citing Japan’s support for human rights and business initiatives in Thailand, Bon said Tokyo could expand similar cooperation in Malaysia and the wider region.

Citing Japan as an example, he said the country has supported human rights and business initiatives in Thailand and could expand similar engagement in Malaysia and across the region. He urged Japan and other partners to promote stronger due diligence within supply chains, particularly among small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

“I hope Japan, along with other dialogue partners can actually work with us here, not just on the environment, but also on other issues,” he said.

“We should have a new supply chain act, mandatory human rights due diligence and mandatory environmental due diligence,” Bon said, adding that such measures would reduce reliance on “naming and shaming” and promote genuine corporate responsibility.