South Asian Conference on Environmental Justice has agreed that South Asian Judiciaries will collaborate in the process of enforcement of environmental laws and share information on environmental challenges and legal issues. The participants of the South Asian Conference, which concluded on Sunday, observed that the role of the judiciary was pivotal in resolving the environmental issues, but it was equally important that all stakeholders play their assigned role in protecting the environment and institutions must be effective, particularly from the point of view of enforcement of orders and directions. The participants agreed to share the vision of the conference with other judicial members in their respective countries. It was agreed in the conference that the South Asian Judiciaries will collaborate among themselves and, as appropriate, engage others in the process of enforcement of environmental laws, to significantly improve the development, implementation, and enforcement of, and compliance of, environmental law and collaborate to make an Action Plan to achieve the same. It was also agreed to share information on South Asian countries’ common environmental challenges and, as appropriate, among the legal professionals, law schools, and the general public. The conference agreed to share information on environmental challenges and legal issues, and best practices in environmental adjudication among themselves, acknowledging the differences among their respective legal systems for the development of Asian Judges Network on Environment website. It agreed to strengthen specialised environmental courts, tribunals/ green benches, where they exist and consider establishing them where they do not exist and specialised environment trainings/programs for judiciary and other members of the legal fraternity. It was further agreed to seek to ensure that judicial decisions on environmental cases are made available to the public and shared within the Asian Judges’ Network on Environment, encourage law schools to include environmental law in their respective scheme of studies and legal professional associations/judicial academies to provide continuing legal education that includes environmental law and jurisprudence.
