The adoption of the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Clean, Safe, Healthy and Sustainable Environment in 2025 provides an opportunity to expand the role and practice of EIA and HRIA in ASEAN.
This paper will examine the opportunities to expand the role of HRIA in the IA process in ASEAN. The adoption of the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Clean, Safe, Healthy and Sustainable Environment in 2025 provided an opportunity to expand the role and practice of environmental impact assessment and develop guidelines on due diligence. The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has been working on a regional action plan to implement the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Clean, Safe, Healthy and Sustainable Environment. Some of the options advanced by civil society include strengthening IA in ASEAN to include transboundary impact assessment, cumulative impact assessment and HRIA. This presentation will expore how HRIA could be implemented in ASEAN as part of this IA reform.
Dr Matthew Baird, FEIANZ, is the Director of the Asian Research Institute for Environmental Law and the Executive Director of the Centre for ESG Law and Practice.