On October 26, 2025, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted [3] the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment. The Declaration takes place in a context of increasing regional environmental degradation and climate vulnerability in Southeast Asia. It also goes along with growing international recognition, under the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [4] and the UN General Assembly’s 2022 [5] resolution on the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, that environmental protection constitutes a fundamental human right requiring state cooperation and accountability.

The Declaration affirms that everyone within the ASEAN member states has the right to live in a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. It sets out both substantive environmental rights such as access to clean air and water and procedural rights such as public participation in environmental decision-making. Although the Declaration got no legal effect, it represents the region’s first comprehensive human-rights-based regional instrument on environmental protection.

The Declaration supports key dimensions of the 2030 Agenda in several ways. First, the 2030 Agenda emphasises that sustainable development must balance the economic, social and environmental pillars and that “all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment.” By recognising environmental rights and procedural safeguards as seen above, the Declaration advances the human-rights dimension of the Agenda and supports the principle of “leaving no one behind.” Third, the Declaration operationalises the link between environmental protection and people’s rights, mirroring the 2030 Agenda’s objectives—such as SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

In the ASEAN context the Declaration provides a framework for member states to harmonise national policies and embed environmental-rights norms in legislation and practice.