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Author	Asst Prof Jacqueline F. Espenilla
Organisation/Institution	University of the Philippines, College of Law
Country	PHILIPPINES
Panel	Environmental Law
Title	The ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Unpacking Southeast Asia’s response to an emerging customary norm
Abstract	On 23 July 2025, the International Court of Justice delivered its historic Advisory Opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change, wherein it recognized for the first time the standalone right to a clean and healthy environment. The ICJ based its reasoning on the existence of a growing body of domestic laws, regional practices, and on UNGA Resolution 76/300, which collectively, might be seen as evidence of a crystallizing customary norm. Just three months later, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations adopted the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment. Like the ICJ Advisory Opinion, the Declaration emphasizes the autonomy of the right to a clean and healthy environment while at the same time, underscoring its links to international human rights. This article unpacks the Declaration and analyzes how and to what extent it epitomizes global normative developments in relation to this nexus, focusing on core principles like transparency, stakeholder participation, and cooperation. It also argues that the Declaration could have gone further, particularly in incorporating emerging legal approaches to the protection of Indigenous Peoples and environmental human rights defenders. The article concludes by reflecting on the normative role of the Declaration in clarifying both the contours and content of the international right to a clean and healthy environment.
Biography	Jacqueline Espenilla is the Chairperson of the Environmental Law Department of the Philippine Judicial Academy. She is also an Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea. Prior to her current appointments, she was a Senior Attorney at the Philippine Department of Justice under the Office of the Secretary, and a Legal Research Consultant at the Asian Development Bank Office of the General Counsel. She completed resident legal research fellowships on ocean governance and the marine environment at the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (UN-Nippon Foundation Fellowship), at Columbia Law School, and at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law. Asst. Prof. Espenilla regularly serves as a government resource person on a range of maritime and environmental issues and has in the past provided legal advice to several government agencies and committees, including the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Presidential Office for Maritime Concerns, and the Special Senate Committee on Maritime and Admiralty Zones. Notably, she serves as one of the Legal Advisers of the Philippine Delegation for the intergovernmental negotiations for the BBNJ Agreement. She received her Master of Laws from Harvard Law School, and her J.D. and B.A. from the University of the Philippines. She is currently working on her doctoral dissertation at Utrecht University School of Law where she is a PhD Candidate.