02 December 2022
Frans Timmermans,
Executive Vice-President of the European Commission,
Virginijus Sinkevičius,
European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries,
Jaroslav Zajíček,
Ambassador, Permanent Representative to COREPER I and
Deputy Head of the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU
Christophe Hansen,
Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur for the Deforestation-Free Products Regulation
Dear Vice-President Timmermans, Commissioner Sinkevičius, Ambassador Zajíček and MEP Hansen,
INDONESIAN AND MALAYSIAN ORGANISATIONS CALL FOR THE PROTECTION OF INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE
We represent environmental, human rights, and Indigenous Peoples’ organisations and palm oil smallholders’ and workers’ associations in Indonesia and Malaysia.
We are writing to you in the final stages of your negotiations on the proposed EU Deforestation Regulation to emphasise the importance of your decisions to the communities we represent and support.
As the oil palm industry continues to expand in our region, moving into remaining community lands and forest areas with little regard by our governments for its impacts on the environment, biodiversity, local communities or workers, the EU Deforestation Regulation offers hope that we can protect our remaining forests and the rights and livelihoods of the communities who defend them.
However, for this new Regulation to have a meaningful impact on the ground, we call on you to ensure that it includes:
- Protections for International human rights, and especially rights protected under international law in relation to land access, use and ownership, such as customary tenure rights and the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC);
- Rights of Access to Justice that allows those who submit complaints to access European courts to ensure their complaints are properly investigated and acted upon; and
- Protections for community-based and sustainable agriculture under forest canopy, such as community-based agroforestry coffee and rubber farming.
These are important, fair and justified requests.
National laws provide little protection on paper or in practice for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities or workers from violations by plantation companies. Our court systems cannot be relied upon to provide fair, transparent or meaningful redress for victims of rights violations. For this Regulation to be effective, it must require that products entering
the EU have not been produced in violation of international human rights, especially rights protected under international law in relation to land use, access and ownership.
Our organisations can provide invaluable evidence from the ground. However, gathering evidence and writing complaints in a form and language that will be taken seriously by European officials can be very difficult. It is therefore important that the Regulation provides a right of access to justice when our evidence and complaints are unfairly ignored.
Where local communities are using their own land for sustainable farming in forest areas, such as agroforestry coffee or rubber under forest canopy, these products should not be restricted from the EU market. This kind of sustainable, community-based farming should be supported and these products should be promoted to EU consumers.
These are three important aspects that will determine whether this new Regulation will have a meaningful impact in our struggle to protect Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s remaining forests and for the rights and livelihoods of the local communities defending them.
What you decide on 5 December matters to us and to the communities, workers and smallholders we represent. We are counting on you.
Respectfully,
From Indonesia:
- AURIGA
- Barisan Pemuda Adat Nusantara (The Indigenous Youth Front of the Archipelago)
- Indonesia for Global Justice (IGJ)
- Kaoem Telapak
- Lembaga Studi & Advokasi Masyarakat (ELSAM)
- PUSAKA
- Satya Bumi
- Sawit Watch
- Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit (SPKS)
- The Institute for Ecosoc Rights
- Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI)
- Nasional Yayasan Masyarakat Kehutanan Lestari (YMKL)
From Malaysia :
- Borneo Challenge Initiative (BCI)
- Persatuan Pemeliharaan dan Pemuliharaan Alam Sekitar Sarawak (PELIHARA)
- Malaysian Nature Society