TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Policy protecting environmental defenders from lawsuits welcomed with caution
Under the new regulation, the Environment and Forestry Ministry can provide legal aid and protection for environmental defenders who are under threat of any retaliatory actions for their activism.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Dozens of university students participate in a protest demanding an accelerated transition to clean and renewable energy from the government at the Merdeka Building in Bandung, West Java, on Aug. 7, 2024. (Antara/M Agung Rajasa)
E
nvironmentalists have welcomed the long-awaited ministerial regulation that will protect people and groups from being prosecuted for fighting for the environment, although some urge the government to be more proactive in preventing intimidation and other non-litigation threats.
The policy, called an anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation or anti-SLAPP, was signed by Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar on Aug. 30, about 15 years after the enactment of the 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law that mandates protection for environmental defenders against criminal or civil lawsuits.
An anti-SLAPP policy is intended to prevent any individual or entities from using courts or threatening to bring someone to court to intimidate people or groups who are exercising their rights; in this case, right to a healthy environment.
Under the new ministerial regulation, the ministry regulates preventive policies in anticipating and handling retaliatory acts against environmental activists, including physical and verbal intimidation; legal notices or subpoenas and lawsuits.
Key provisions stipulated in the regulation include the setting up of a forum of law enforcers certified with environmental expertise, pushing for coordination between law enforcement agencies and forming an ad hoc team to assess legal aid requests from activists.
Read also: In Southeast Asia, protecting the environment is its own hazard
Raynaldo Sembiring, executive director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), hailed the regulation as a “final piece of the puzzle” that completes all previous anti-SLAPP regulations from the 2009 law to a Supreme Court regulation issued last year on the guidance of environmental case trials.
