Eco-Apartheid: Unpacking Environmental Injustice and its Impact on Human Rights

This study comprehensively examines how existing environmental policies often exacerbate social inequality and neglect the rights of vulnerable communities, particularly minorities, indigenous peoples, and those living below the poverty line. This study adopts a library research method, exploring the concept of eco-apartheid and its implications for human rights through an integrated literature review, combined with a content analysis approach. The results of this study confirm that eco-apartheid reflects structural injustices that violate human rights, particularly the right to a clean and healthy environment. Land grabbing, exploitation of natural resources, and urban segregation widen ecological and social inequalities, which are exacerbated by weak law enforcement and the dominance of corporate interests. The right to a decent and healthy environment has been recognised in international law proceedings, such as UN Resolution No. 76/300 of 2022, the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, and the 1992 Rio Declaration. In the ASEAN region, exclusive development has marginalised poor communities and reinforced eco-apartheid, necessitating a new legal paradigm that places the environment as a subject of human rights protection, with the application of various principles of precaution and vigilance, transparent policy reform, and protection for environmental defenders. Ecologically, just legal excellence is critical for eliminating eco-apartheid and guaranteeing every individual's right to a safe, fair, and sustainable environment.