29 October 2025, Bangkok, Thailand - Environmental groups expressed disappointment and concern over the recent adoption of the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment. The declaration marks an important milestone for ASEAN toward addressing environmental concerns, transboundary harms, climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Key issues remain insufficiently addressed, like protection for environmental defenders, indigenous peoples’ rights, and concrete measures to combat environmental harm and climate crises.

“This is not the inclusive and rights-based declaration that the public and civil society have called for. It also overlooks environmental defenders who stand at the frontlines of protecting our planet,”

- Rocky Guzman, Deputy Director of the Asian Research Institute for Environmental Law

The declaration comes after the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on October 27-28, 2025. The declaration stems from strong clamor of civil society, human rights and environmental groups, and affected communities. On April 5, around 30 civil society organizations from Southeast Asia, led by ARIEL, Indonesian Center for Environmental Law, Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders (APNED), and ASEAN Youth Forum, presented a joint statement to urging the development of a comprehensive and inclusive environmental rights declaration, to His Excellency Edmund Bon Tai Soon, Chair of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR).

Lia Mai Torres, Coordinator of APNED expressed concerns over the lack of inclusion of environmental human rights defenders, “There have been 354 killings and disappearances of land and environmental defenders in Southeast Asia since 2012, according to Global Witness data yet there is no mention about the recognition and protection of environmental human rights defenders in the declaration. It is not only disappointing but unjust to ignore those who have lost their lives for upholding human rights.”

“We commend the inclusion of the indigenous peoples/communities in the declaration but it still lacks strong language that addresses the urgent needs to safeguard and protect the environment and the people that defend it including many of the Indigenous Peoples environmental defenders that are criminalised for their work in the region. ASEAN must halt the lean towards authoritarian governance within its member states if it is to effectively uphold real, just and inclusive human and environmental rights,“ said Celine Lim, Managing Director of SAVE Rivers, a Malaysian Indigenous Rights group.

Adding to the growing concern, Raynaldo G. Sembiring, Executive Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), emphasized: “The ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment marks an important first step in acknowledging environmental protection as a fundamental human right within ASEAN. However, its true strength will not be defined by the words written on paper, but by how each member state translates these commitments into concrete and measurable actions. We need clear national action plans and robust regional cooperation to ensure that environmental governance in ASEAN is inclusive, rights-based, and accountable. This means protecting vulnerable communities and environmental defenders, guaranteeing access to information and justice, and holding both state and non-state actors accountable for environmental harm.”

“While we are encouraged that ASEAN has taken a step toward protecting the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a fundamental human right, we are disappointed with the Declaration that ASEAN adopted. It appears that ASEAN ignored the many valuable inputs provided by civil society on issues including indigenous peoples' rights, protection of environmental defenders, and procedural environmental rights. Going forward, we urge AICHR to adopt a meaningful process for public participation in the development of the Regional Plan of Action," said Mekong Legal Network.

“We commend ASEAN leaders on this commitment. However, ASEAN cannot always be taking one step forward, and three steps back. Our leaders owe it to future generations to boldly commit to resolving pressing human and environmental rights issues in ASEAN, and meaningfully involving affected communities as we implement this declaration on the ground,” said Max Han, Co-founder of Youths United for Earth Malaysia and Representative of ASEAN Youth Forum.

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