By: Charlie Meidino Albajili, Programme Officer for Access to Justice/Business and Human Rights, Jakarta Office
On 9–10 December 2025, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) convened a Regional Roundtable Dialogue in Bangkok to explore how the access to environmental justice (A2EJ) elements of the newly adopted ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment (ADER) can be operationalised in practice.
The dialogue brought together around 20 participants from across Southeast Asia, including judicial actors, public interest lawyers, National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), civil society organisations, Indigenous Peoples’ representatives, Environmental Human Rights Defenders (EHRDs), and development partners. The discussions aimed to gather practical reflections, challenges, and recommendations to inform the development of a forthcoming Regional Plan of Action (RPA) under ADER, and to contribute to RWI’s ongoing strategic paper on operationalising access to justice under the Declaration.
From challenges on the ground to regional pathways
Over the two-day dialogue, participants examined how access to environmental justice is currently experienced across ASEAN Member States, highlighting both persistent barriers and emerging opportunities.
Day 1 focused on identifying key challenges, protection gaps, and promising practices at national and regional levels. Discussions underscored that, despite important advances in some countries, access to justice remains uneven, particularly for communities affected by environmental harm, Indigenous Peoples, and EHRDs. Participants pointed to recurring challenges such as threats and reprisals against defenders, limited access to information, inadequate stakeholder engagement, high costs of litigation, heavy evidentiary burdens, and difficulties in addressing transboundary environmental harm.
At the same time, participants highlighted positive developments across the region, including growing recognition of environmental rights and protections for EHRDs in some ASEAN Member States, as well as the potential role of practical tools and guidance, such as work on a guidebook on Rules of Procedure on Environmental Cases (RPEC) to support more accessible and rights-based judicial processes.
Day 2 shifted the discussion towards the future, focusing on translating shared priorities into practical and actionable pathways. Through interactive sessions, participants developed recommendations on how ASEAN bodies, courts, NHRIs, and civil society could contribute to advancing the A2EJ commitments of ADER through the RPA process.
Key reflections emerging from the dialogue
Participants recognised that, despite its limitations, ADER represents a significant milestone in ASEAN’s human rights architecture. The Declaration affirms the interconnectedness between environmental protection and human rights, acknowledges the disproportionate impacts of environmental harm on vulnerable groups, and highlights the importance of protecting those who promote environmental and human rights. Participants emphasised that rights-based approaches to environmental and climate challenges are essential to ensure that responses do not deepen existing vulnerabilities or exacerbate human rights risks.
Participants emphasised the importance of developing clearer normative guidance under the RPA, including shared standards on meaningful participation, access to remedies, legal standing for affected communities, and procedural safeguards that ensure decisions are timely, affordable, transparent, and enforceable. The need for disaggregated data to better understand how environmental harm affects different groups was also highlighted.
Strengthening collaboration between AICHR, NHRIs (including through SEANF), and judicial bodies such as the Council of ASEAN Chief Justices (CACJ) was identified as a key opportunity, alongside regional learning platforms, case repositories, and capacity-building initiatives. Participants also stressed the importance of monitoring and follow-up mechanisms under the RPA, with clear roles, indicators, and timelines to ensure implementation remains practical and effective.
Looking Ahead
The dialogue underscored that transparency, inclusive stakeholder engagement, and clarity of process will be essential as ASEAN moves forward with developing the Regional Plan of Action under ADER. Insights from the roundtable will inform RWI’s strategic paper on operationalising access to environmental justice and contribute to ongoing regional discussions on translating ADER’s commitments into concrete action.
The dialogue was supported by Sida, contributing to ongoing regional work to strengthen access to environmental justice under ADER.
Read more about RWI’s Regional Asia Pacific Programme 2 (RAPP2) here