Southeast Asia’s toxic haze spurs calls for legal action against polluters
ASEAN's consensus-driven approach and a lack of enforcement mechanisms make legal action difficult, experts say.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As toxic haze from Indonesia’s worst wildfires in a decade clouded skies across Malaysia and Singapore over the past two months, a growing clamour of voices has demanded legal accountability.
In theory, a patchwork of domestic and international laws makes it possible for Southeast Asian governments to hold polluters responsible for cross-border haze, most of which has been blamed on land clearing by Indonesian palm oil plantation owners.
In practice, sensitivities around national sovereignty, a lack of enforcement mechanisms, and the practical challenges of evidence collection make legal action difficult, if not infeasible.
“Such direct evidence can only be obtained if the Indonesian authorities themselves investigate and take action against these very companies and share their evidence with Singapore,” Alan Khee-Jin Tan, an expert in environmental law at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Law, told Al Jazeera.