Indonesia Conference Directory

Women have little or no access to voice their experiences in the environmental protection and management. This situation is due to the deeply rooted patriarchal culture and poverty which makes women suffer a lot. The Indonesian environmental law is considered gender neutral. However, the government and law enforcement officers do not have an adequate gender perspective to fully interpret the law. Meanwhile, women have actively participated in maintaining the environment. Thus, the gender neutrality in the law is now questioned within the environmental law framework. This question is significant for those who are concerned on the gender neutrality in law which aims to achieve substantive equality. In this paper, I would like first to consider the gender equality principle in the Indonesian law in general and specifically in the Indonesian environmental law. Then, I would like to show that there is still a weak law and lack of will from the government and law enforcement officers to implement gender mainstreaming into environmental law. Furthermore, experiences from other ASEAN countries will be examined to enrich the translation of gender equality in the Indonesian environmental law. I, then analyze ASEAN regional mechanisms with the aim of enhancing the gender perspective in the Indonesian environmental law. I conclude that the strong gender perspective is needed in interpreting the Indonesian environmental law in order to achieve substantive equality.