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

Abstract

This study comprehensively explores how existing environmental policies often exacerbate social inequalities and ignore the rights of vulnerable communities, especially minority groups, indigenous peoples, and those living below the poverty line. This study adopts a library research method, which deeply explores the concept of eco-apartheid and its impact on human rights through an integrated and connected literature analysis approach with a content analysis approach. The study confirms that eco-apartheid in ASEAN is not a stand-alone phenomenon, but is part of a broader system of injustice that encompasses economic, social, political, legal and cultural. Eco-apartheid has a significant impact on human rights. The right to a healthy environment, which includes the right to clean water, clean air and unpolluted land, is one of the most frequently violated rights in the context of eco-apartheid. Its manifestations are seen in various aspects of life, from land grabbing and exploitation of natural resources to the segregation of urban spaces. To address eco-apartheid in the ASEAN region, a more holistic and systematic approach is needed, which focuses not only on mitigating environmental impacts but also on restructuring economic policies and more inclusive and equitable natural resource governance based on human rights.