Learning Environmental Rights, Finding Green Future: The Road To Ecojustice

Abstract

This paper sets a reconstruction of legal environmental paradigm and finds the alternative paradigm which considers the environment as a unity with human being.The debates of environmental rights offer new perspective on rights and environmental issues. The carelessness of sustainable environment often occur when the state apply the environmental regulations or policies.Nowadays, the thought of “ecojustice”—environmental justice—has been rapidly developed. Otto Sumarwoto said about “Our Common Future” (Otto, 1991), Jimly Asshiddiqie said about “Green Constitution” (Jimly, 2009), and Fritjof Capra could say the same in “Green Politics: The Global Promise” (Capra, 1984). They make a sense that environmental protection is insufficient if it does not include the consideration of whole life, including present and future, that Environmental Rights is a road to Intergenerational Justice.In developing country such as Indonesia, the development activities might causesome environmental damages. These conditionsbecame worse in the autonomy era (since 2001) until present day, which environmental institution become weak in environmental law enforcement. As examples are Buyat Bay Case by Newmont Minahasa Raya, Ltd. (2004);and illegal logging by Adelin Lis (2007). These problems should be solved by beginning with an examination of the notion of rights to the environment and to the identification of such rights in formulation of regulations and policies.

Key Words : environmental rights, anthropocentric, ecojustice, regulation