Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 5 July 2025
- We, the undersigned Members of Parliament, civil society organizations, and environmental justice advocates from across Southeast Asia, gathered in Kuala Lumpur on 4–5 July 2025 for the regional workshop “The Impact of Plastic Pollution on Human Rightsˮ, co-organized by the Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) Asia-Pacific Coordination Team and ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), alongside members of the BFFP movement across the region.
- We met with a shared commitment: to defend the right of all peoples in Southeast Asia to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, and to collectively confront one of the regionʼs most urgent and neglected crises—the human rights impacts of plastic pollution and transboundary plastic waste trade.
- We recognize that the entire life cycle of plastics—from extraction and production to consumption, disposal, and transboundary trade—has become a systemic threat to human rights, public health, and environmental integrity. The impacts of this crisis are disproportionately borne by waste pickers and other workers in the informal recycling value chain, Indigenous peoples, women, children, and marginalized coastal and rural [related to Session 1]
- The continued transboundary trade in plastic waste—often disguised as recycling—has enabled countries of the Global North to shift their environmental burdens onto Southeast Asia. Despite national bans and international obligations under the Basel Convention, countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand remain hotspots for waste dumping and toxic exposure. [related to Session 3]
- While we appreciate the existing regional progress through declarations and frameworks, including The ASEAN Framework of Action on Marine Debris (2019), The Bangkok Declaration on Marine Debris (2019), Framework for Circular Economy for the ASEAN Economic Community (2021), The ASEAN Regional Action Plan on Marine Debris (2021–2025), and The ASEAN Declaration on Plastic Circularity (2024); these instruments are non-binding and lacking in human rights They make no mention of the right to a healthy environment, the disproportionate impact of plastic pollution on vulnerable groups, the risks faced by environmental defenders, or the need for transparency and public participation. [related to Session 2]
- Furthermore, the forthcoming ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment (2025)—a potentially transformative milestone in recognizing environmental rights as human rights — fails to explicitly link environmental rights to plastic pollution, marine litter, and transboundary waste trade. [opening session]
- At the same time, at the global level, negotiations on a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty present a critical window for ASEAN member states to champion ambitious, justice-oriented measures. Yet, ASEAN lacks a unified, ambitious negotiating stance despite the dire consequences of plastic pollution in the region, or a formal process to engage parliamentarians and civil society in shaping its position. [related to Session 2]
We therefore declare the following shared commitments and recommendations:
8. Reaffirm plastic pollution as a human rights It endangers the rights to health, clean water, food, work, and a safe environment. ASEAN must treat plastic governance as a human rights imperative—not merely an environmental or waste management concern.
9. Call on ASEAN [Foreign Ministers] and its Member States to:
- Develop a Regional Action Plan on plastic pollution and plastic waste trade, grounded in environmental justice, gender equity, and human rights.
- Harmonize and enforce regulations on transboundary plastic waste imports, holding violators accountable.
- Enact a regional ban on plastic waste imports, accompanied by clear phase-down timelines, robust enforcement mechanisms, and alternatives to promote and enhance domestic waste collection for national and regional circular
- Urge ASEAN to ban plastic waste imports and develop a regional agreement on transboundary plastic waste management that is environmentally sound and socially just.
- Provide legal and physical protection for environmental defenders, waste workers, and local leaders who face intimidation, harassment, or criminalisation.
- Guarantee public access to environmental information, including corporate data on plastic production, waste flows, and pollution
- Institutionalize inclusive participation of civil society, national human rights institutions (NHRIs), Indigenous communities, and parliamentarians in environmental policy processes.
10. Call on the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to:
- Include transboundary plastic pollution and waste trade into the Regional Plan of Action (RPoA) on Environmental Rights as a follow-up action from the adoption of the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable
- Ensure the RPoA includes monitoring targets, measurable indicators, timelines, and budget allocations related to marine debris reduction, plastic waste import/export regulation, and river basin cooperation.
- Ensure inclusive consultations with civil society and affected communities throughout the RPoA process.
- Recognize and protect environmental defenders through regional principles and country-level guidance.
- Amplify and institutionalize local and Indigenous knowledge systems in environmental decision-making.
- Encourage ASEAN Member States to adopt mandatory environmental and human rights due diligence for businesses operating in high-risk sectors.
- Align regional policies with global instruments such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the Escazú Agreement.
11. Urge ASEAN Member States to lead the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations by:
- Advocating for a legally binding treaty addressing the full life cycle of plastics—from upstream production to end-of-life impacts.
- Phasing out avoidable, problematic, and single-use plastics and creating systems for reuse, refill, and extended producer
- Supporting a global ban on plastic waste exports from developed to developing countries, especially those lacking the infrastructure to manage such waste
- Demanding strong provisions on technology transfer, financial support, and capacity-building to support a just transition in the Global South.
12. Commit to strengthening collaboration between civil society and parliamentarians to:
- Reform national laws and align them with regional and global treaty standards on plastic reduction, waste regulation, and circularity.
- Enhance corporate transparency and accountability across the plastics supply chain, including through due diligence
- Monitor state and private sector compliance with environmental and human rights
- Amplify frontline and community-led solutions, including those championed by Indigenous groups, grassroots organizations, and informal waste
We do hereby declare our shared commitment to take the following actions to ensure ASEAN plastic governance as a human rights imperative:
13. For Parliamentarians:
- Introduce a resolution at the upcoming ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) General Assembly affirming the right of all peoples in Southeast Asia to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, and recognizing plastic pollution and transboundary plastic waste trade as urgent regional crises with profound human rights and environmental implications.
- Lead national legislative reforms to align with international standards and regional aspirations by enacting or strengthening laws that:
- Regulate plastic production and consumption;
- Ban or restrict plastic waste imports;
- Mandate corporate environmental and human rights due diligence;
- Advance circular economy principles;
- Mandate extended producer's responsibility and polluters pay
- Establish parliamentary oversight mechanisms to monitor:
- The implementation and enforcement of environmental regulations;
- The conduct of corporations and importers;
- Public sector accountability, including budget utilization for waste management, environmental justice, and just transition initiatives.
- Ensure that public budgets reflect the needs of the most affected communities, including informal waste workers, women, Indigenous peoples, and local, rural and coastal populations, by prioritizing inclusive, equitable, and rights-based environmental programs.
- Champion the protection of environmental defenders, whistleblowers, and frontline communities through legal guarantees and public support, acknowledging their critical role in safeguarding environmental and democratic
- Convene inclusive national and subnational dialogues that engage civil society, youth, academia, Indigenous leaders, and marginalized groups in shaping national positions on ASEANʼs role in the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations and beyond.
- Represent the interests of the people, particularly those most affected by plastic pollution, in all parliamentary functions, ensuring policies are people-centred, gender-responsive, and climate-just.
- Come together to establish a Southeast Asian Parliamentary Network on Anti-Plastic Pollution, to:
- Facilitate sustained cross-border collaboration and knowledge exchange;
- Harmonize legislative efforts across the ASEAN Member States;
- Engage in joint oversight missions and regional consultations;
- Speak with a united voice in regional and global forums, including ASEAN platforms and Global Plastics Treaty negotiations;
- Amplify the role of parliaments as protectors of rights and champions of environmental justice in the face of the plastic
14. For Civil Society:
- Advocate at ASOEN and AICHR to embed human rights into ASEANʼs marine debris and plastic governance frameworks.
- Encourage the ASEAN in general and ASOEN and AICHR in particular, to formalize platforms where CSOs, academic institutions, and parliamentarians co-create policy recommendations.
- Strengthen grassroots monitoring of plastic waste imports and environmental
- Build cross-border coalitions to trace plastic flows and expose illegal dumping
- Coordinate national and regional participation in the Global Plastics Treaty
15. Specifically, we call on the ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment (ASOEN), at their 36th Meeting in Langkawi, Malaysia (28 July–1 August 2025), to: [related to opening session]
- Recognize plastic pollution as a regional human rights emergency and commit to an urgent, coordinated, and rights-based response. This framing must inform all environmental strategies and be mainstreamed across ASOENʼs working groups, cross-sectoral coordination, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Post-2025 Strategic Plan.
- Integrate concrete measures for social protection, capacity building, and financial support into just transition frameworks away from plastic dependency. These must include targeted budget allocations and policy mechanisms that prioritize informal waste workers, women, youth, Indigenous peoples, and coastal communities—those most acutely impacted by plastic pollution. A just transition must be central to ASEANʼs sustainability agenda.
- Ensure that the ASCC Post-2025 agenda fully incorporates environmental justice and human rights safeguards, that the forthcoming ASEAN Joint Statement on Biodiversity Conservation (for CBD COP16) reflects the plastic–biodiversity nexus, and that institutional reforms strengthen ASOENʼs ability to address complex, transboundary environmental threats such as plastic pollution.
This joint statement represents a call for shared responsibility, regional solidarity, and transformative action—to reclaim our ecosystems, protect our people, and uphold the environmental and human rights of present and future generations.
For any additional questions or clarifications, please reach out to: devayani@breakfreefromplastic.org.
Organized by:
