Securing environmental justice
Kishan Khoday, Jakarta
As incomes rise so do demands to ensure the rights to clean air, clean water, and the right of future generations to inherit a healthy, ecologically balanced environment. In the past decade governments around the world have started to recognize the right to a healthy environment as a basic human right. Some two-thirds of the world's nations have constitutions or legislation intended to ensure this right.
In Indonesia, the right to a healthy environment is included in the 1997 Environmental Management Act, while Article 33 of the Constitution on social welfare and natural resources has quickly become central to the work of Indonesia's new Constitutional Court.
A rights based approach is a framework that focuses on human rights and responsibilities. Development programs guided by human rights focus on respecting human dignity, achieving fairness in opportunities and equal treatment for all and strengthening the ability of local communities to access resources and services.
While in many countries the focus is on increasing the quality of life of a rising middle-class, a rights-based approach to environmental issues should ensure equal rights for vulnerable communities. Tribal communities -- often living in the most globally critical ecosystems -- in particular remain the most socially excluded communities. For such communities the right to a healthy environment means freedom from extreme forms of toxic pollution, freedom from the abuse of customary rights related to land and other resources, and protection of their basic right to life itself.
As expressed in the UN Decade for the World's Indigenous People (1995-2004) and the 2004 UNDP Human Development Report, indigenous rights are critical for achieving development goals. The last decade has seen the rise of autonomy regimes for indigenous peoples across the world and Indonesia's 2001 Special Autonomy Act for Papua serves as an important part of this global trend.
The Autonomy Act puts indigenous culture central to national development goals and at the same time highlights the difficulties of bridging cultural perspectives related to land and resource management which lay at the foundation of poverty reduction and environmental sustainability efforts.
A rights based approach in the Act is explicit where it states that "the management of natural resources in Papua has not yet been carried out optimally to raise living standards, resulting in an imbalance between Papua and other regions and a neglect of the basic rights of indigenous peoples."
The Special Autonomy Act requires that implementation of foreign investment and development schemes are based on meaningful consultations with local communities, and that indigenous communities play a role in monitoring and evaluation.
UNDP supports local initiatives aimed at sustainable use of land and natural resources to reduce poverty and protect the ecosystems of Papua. Unsustainable use of land will lead to increased poverty while excluding communities from the benefits of development and their right to a healthy environment may trigger conflict. UNDP supports a rights-based approach focusing on:
o Access to participation: Supports indigenous communities' role in processes related to planning and execution of land and development policies.
o Access to information: Required to understand the risks from development, for decision-making related to the environment and natural resource management, and to participate in monitoring social and environmental impacts.
o Access to justice should include improved dispute resolution among government, civil society and business to address issues of compliance with land use rules and indigenous customs, including the Special Autonomy Act's call to establish indigenous customary courts to resolve disputes based on the "living rights of the people."
As we mark World Environment Day this year, let us join with each other to recreate the human community, to promote peace and justice and reflect on the mystery that lives in all of us.
The writer is a Juris Doctor in International Environmental Law. He served as Focal Point for Environmental Governance with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Indonesia. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of UNDP.