ASEAN urged to move from pledge to action on green rights

AWANI

Malaysia says ASEAN’s new environmental rights declaration is a key first step, but real change depends on action, with leaders urged to turn the symbolic measure into enforceable regional policies.

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00:00Malaysia says the newly adopted ASEAN decoration on the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a key first step.

00:09But real change depends on action.

00:12Adopted at the 47th ASEAN Summit, the decoration marks a symbolic step towards regional environmental action,

00:19though it carries no legal weight reflecting ASEAN's diverse political systems, says former Environment Minister Nek Nazmi Nek Ahmad.

00:28As much as we would like to think that ASEAN is another EU, it is not.

00:35And, you know, it's very different.

00:39In ASEAN, for example, we still have one government is still an absolute monarchy.

00:45We have various levels of elections.

00:51We have countries that have never changed governments.

00:55And we have Myanmar, which is another outlier.

00:58And we have a communist state, as in Vietnam.

01:00So it is very, very different.

01:02So you can't compare it with the EU, where pretty much, I mean, not to say that they're perfect,

01:07but they pretty much are democratic countries on their own.

01:11And they have common institutions like the parliament.

01:15I think now the next step is actually to make use of it.

01:17There's nothing, there's no use to have a so-called perfect or idealised declaration and then for it to just fall by the side.

01:26So I think for the civil society, for people like Greenpeace, so on and so forth,

01:30it's for you to make use of what we have and try to push the boundaries of the laws that we have,

01:37of the rights that is being interpreted at the courts in various countries,

01:41so that we can fill in that void and we push it further and further.

01:46For ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights Chair Edmund Bond,

01:50the next challenge is turning the declaration into a concrete ASEAN action plan

01:55that holds governments and corporations accountable for sustainability.

01:59I can tell you now, during the negotiations, the four countries that were very together

02:06were Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines on this declaration from the start.

02:13We actually need technical experts.

02:15We know the cases.

02:17We actually know the case studies.

02:19We know the complaints.

02:20If you tell me mercury is a problem, if you tell me nickel is a problem,

02:24give me the solution.

02:25How do I work this into a plan of action that is acceptable, that ASEAN can work on?

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