Govt fails to uphold right to healthy environment: Walhi

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has urged the government to address environmental problems from a human rights point of view.

Observing International Human Rights Day, which falls on Dec. 10, Walhi executive director Chalid Muhammad said on Friday the government had failed to protect people's right to a healthy environment, which was among the basic human rights.

The government, he said, had failed to punish those who damaged the environment, which he deemed a violation of Article 28 of the Constitution. The article says that all people have the right to a healthy environment.

"The state, the government, has failed to respect, fulfill and protect a basic right of the Indonesian people -- the right to enjoy a good environment," Chalid said at his office.

He said the government and law enforcers lacked a human rights perspective in adjudicating environmental destruction cases as they treated them as common criminal acts.

"Not a single verdict delivered on an environment-related case took into account human rights aspects," he said, taking as an example the pollution of Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi involving mining giant PT Newmont Minahasa Raya.

In the Buyat case, Chalid said, the government had agreed to an out-of-court settlement.

"In a human rights violation case, there's no such thing as a compromise," he said.

Recently the government decided not to appeal the South Jakarta District Court's verdict that overturned its lawsuit against Newmont, settling the case out of court.

Since legal actions against the government's accountability in protecting the right to the environment have always failed in court, Walhi and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) would raise the issue in the next United Nations High Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) session in March 2006.

"We will deliver the issue in the rights of development and the rights of economy, social and culture sessions," Walhi deputy director Ridha Saleh told The Jakarta Post.

Member of the National Commission on Human Rights Saafroeddin Bahar supported the move, but was skeptical of its success.

"To follow up the report, UNCHR might send a delegation or write to the President, but you must remember that an international consensus has its limitations," Saafroeddin said, suggesting that NGOs cooperate with the government in advancing the right to the environment.