Securing environmental justice

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.