In 2019, a group of Jakarta residents and several legal and environmental organizations, including the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), Greenpeace and the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), filed a citizen lawsuit against President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the environment and forestry minister, as well as the governors of Jakarta, West Java and Banten for their alleged negligence in creating policies to control air pollution, which has resulted in unhealthy air.

After two years, there has been no sign of when and how this judicial process will end. On June 24, a panel of judges postponed the reading of the verdict for the sixth time; this time because one of the judges had tested positive for COVID-19. The Central Jakarta District Court had been scheduled to issue the verdict on May 20.  

While the delay means the citizens’ right to justice is denied, the postponement brings about overarching consequences.

Within the poor air quality level rests many aspects of human rights violations. As humans need oxygen to live, clean air becomes a necessity for our rights to live.

When the air is polluted, not only is public health harder to reach, but the unhealthy environment may also lead to other catastrophes. Therefore, if no concrete actions to stop the pollution are taken, the problem will accumulate and result in greater policy costs.

Delays of the Jakarta air pollution verdict also affect the victims of poor air quality. Time is a very decisive measure in the context of environmental litigation. The longer it takes for the dispute to be resolved, the greater the impact felt by the community because air pollution has fast, macro-spreading consequences.

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