GENEVA - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk today welcomed the adoption by ASEAN of a landmark regional declaration on the right to a healthy environment. The declaration was adopted by the 10-member grouping on 26 October during its 47th summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
"The ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment marks a vital step forward as the first regional affirmation of the right to a healthy environment across Southeast Asia," said Türk. "It is a very timely collective acknowledgement that environmental stewardship and integrity are inseparable from human rights, at a time when multiple planetary crises, including climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, are intensifying globally," he added, calling on all States to step up their efforts to fulfil the right to a healthy environment for all.
The High Commissioner called on ASEAN Member States to build on the declaration to ensure coordinated leadership and timely action toward addressing transboundary environmental harms, such as climate change, land, water and air pollution, with the meaningful participation of the most affected, including women, young people, and Indigenous Peoples. He also emphasized the particular need to ensure the effective protection of environmental human rights defenders and their essential work.
"ASEAN Member States should now move quickly to translate their commitments under the Declaration into laws, policies and practices, including measures to hold private sector actors accountable for environmental harms. Time is of the essence, as environmental harms deepen and multiply," said the UN Human Rights Chief.
The declaration is the latest regional environmental and human rights instrument since the UN General Assembly resolution 76/300, which recognized the global right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and the International Court of Justice's recent Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change.
Türk assured ASEAN and its Member States of the UN Human Rights Office's readiness to support them in their efforts to implement the Declaration, including through technical cooperation and capacity-building, and the development and implementation of a regional plan of action to operationalize it. He urged ASEAN Member States to continue advancing rights-based environmental action in line with the rapidly evolving international norms in this area.
