Justices identify environmental woes in ASEAN meet

MANILA, Philippines — The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) judiciary sought for continued cooperation after identifying the challenges their respective nations face amid the threat of climate change.

Among the challenges the nations face listed by the Supreme Court Philippine Mediation Center chief Brenda Jay Angeles-Mendoza on her synthesis are the increasing complexity of environmental cases, difficulty of linking the legal and specific assessments and concern for more effective enforcement of environmental laws by or with other sectors. The ASEAN regions are also concerned with the law or deficient penalties provided by law for environmental crimes as well as the challenge of balancing environmental protection and economic growth.

In the two-day 6th ASEAN chief justices’ roundtable on environment, Mendoza said the region's chief justices were supposed to come up with an "aspirational" and non-binding agreement on the three documents regarded by their countries: the Jakarta Common Vision (JCV), the Hanoi Action plan to implement the JCV and the Angkor Statement on Judicial Cooperation and Environment.

However, the ASEAN delegates were only able to discuss and report the nations’ progress as well as challenges since some chief justices only sent representatives. Only the chief justices of the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia as well as Guam Chief Justice Robert Torres Jr. attended the forum while other nations sent their respective justices as representatives.

READ: Who’s who: Chief justices at 6th ASEAN meet on environment

“Some of these cases involve cross-border and transnational issues, with foreign elements  which pose challenges and raise the need for further collaboration among the judiciaries in handling cases of this nature,” Mendoza said in her synthesis, adding that the ASEAN courts mentioned the need for assistance in their increasing judicial capacity, training initiatives, twinning programs, environmental laws in academic curriculum and developing of technical experts, among others.

Mendoza also noted that there were also language barrier problems encountered during the meeting, citing some legal documents of other non-speaking English countries were not translated, making it difficult for others to comprehend.

Supreme Court Philippine Mediation Center chief Brenda Jay Angeles-Mendoza faced members of the media to discuss the synthesis of the 6th ASEAN chief justices' roundtable on environment. Philstar.com/Rosette Adel

The ASEAN judiciaries then expressed support to their counterparts to alleviate and resolve the challenges mentioned. They will convene in the annual ASEAN roundtable next year in Brunei.

The roundtable discussions were strictly restricted to the media.

This year, the Philippines hosted the ASEAN roundtable on environment in Puerto Princesa, Palawan with Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno as conference chair.

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