Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo giving a keynote speech at the Gadjah Mada National Law Conference 2023, Friday (3/17/2023). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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(MKRI) — Strengthening the protection of a good environment without any strong political will would only be a discourse that has no power at the public level. Therefore, since the Constitutional Court’s (MK) establishment in 2003 until today, it has provided reinforcement through its decisions, both on norms relating to environmental sustainability and in the form of legal considerations that serve as lawmaking guidelines for the legislature (House of Representatives/DPR and Government).

This statement was made by Constitutional Justice Suhartoyo in his keynote speech at the national seminar of Gadjah Mada National Law Conference 2023 on “The Role of National Law in Green Economy for Sustainable Development in Indonesia” at the auditorium of Building B of the Law Faculty of Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta on Friday, March 17, 2023.

The Green Economy concept, Justice Suhartoyo said, was first launched by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 2008. It was aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, which was ratified on September 25, 2015 by 193 representatives from various countries. This concept is a derivative of the concept of sustainable development. In other words, it is about aligning business and infrastructure development by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, extracting and using less natural resources, reducing waste, and minimizing social disparities.

Green Economy is enshrined in Article 28H paragraph (1) and Article 33 paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution, Justice Suhartoyo continued. These two norms emphasize fundamental provisions, on the guarantee of citizens’ rights to a good and healthy environment, as well as the preservation of nature from damage caused by economic activities. In line with the concept of green economy, the Constitution has also shown it through the idea of a green constitution as promoted by Brawijaya University law professor Achmad Sodiki. Achmad Sodiki believes in-depth studies of green constitution are important, but Article 28H paragraph (1) of the Constitution has stated that the right to obtain a good and healthy living environment and good health services is a human right. Similarly, Article 33 paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution states that the national economy is organized based on economic democracy with the principles of togetherness, equitable efficiency, sustainability, environmental perspective, independence, and by maintaining a balance of progress and national economic unity.

“So, basically, the Indonesian Constitution already contains basic ideas about environmental protection and sustainable development. Normatively, all existing laws and regulations and development sector policies must comply with the constitutional mandate,” he explained.

Constitutional Interpretation

The Constitutional Court in several decisions, Justice Suhartoyo continued, has provided constitutional interpretations that are in line with the spirit of the green economy to fight for environmental protection and minimize socio-economic disparities. For example, Decision No. 002/PUU-I/2003 strengthened environmental norms in Article 28H of the 1945 Constitution. The decision affirmed that in relation to Article 33 paragraphs (3) and (4) of the 1945 Constitution, the state and government must utilize sources of wealth while maintaining the environment, by regulating, administering, managing, and supervising branches of production that are important to the state and/or control the lives of many people for the purpose of the greatest prosperity of the people.

Similarly, Decision No. 95/PUU-XII/2014 grants the right to collect and utilize forest products for subsystem needs. It states that indigenous communities in and around forest areas are allowed to benefit from forest products for their daily needs and not for commercial purposes. Next, in terms of law enforcement in the environmental sector, Decision No. 15/PUU-XIX/2021 on the judicial review of Law No. 8/2010 on the Prevention and Eradication of Money Laundering has expanded the meaning of investigators and given the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) civil service investigators (PPNS) the authority to handle cases of money laundering (TPPU) in forestry and environmental sector.

“We need to note that the modes of criminal acts are not only corruption, drugs, and the like, but have shifted to unexpected criminal acts. It is actually considered safe to hide money laundering with a non-strategic mode, so the Constitutional Court Decision No. 15/PUU-XIX/2021 observed this. Investigators are authorized to investigate money laundering, the proceeds of which come from criminal acts in environment and forestry,” Justice Suhartoyo said.

At the end of the lecture, Justice Suhartoyo expressed his appreciation for the national seminar, which helped disseminate knowledge that can be used to recommend state policy makers, including judges in deciding cases related to environmental protection. He saw the seminar as a momentum to compile studies and research that can help policymakers to incorporate the values and principles of environmental protection in legislation and legal political policies.

Author       : Sri Pujianti 
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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