The natural resources and environment reform committee, one of 13 appointed under the national reform law to come up with the first five-year reform plans, on Wednesday introduced a draft proposal for a new system design to around 50 invited concerned parties at a closed-door meeting.

Sayumporn Limthai, a former member of the National Reform Council pushed for setting up a court, told the meeting that environmental justice in the country is not yet in line with international principles. The system is still uncoordinated and lacks a unified approach, while necessary tools to help unify the system and curtail impacts, including injunctions, the new court, as well as the legal procedures in the environmental cases bill, are still missing.

Sayumporn added that the current justice court’s procedures are still based too much on an accusational approach, rather than inquisitional approach. This particularly lays a burden on the plaintiffs, who are often locals and the poor affected by development projects, to prove their case in court.

Environmental cases, Sayumporn noted, are complicated and technical and actually need experts to help prove wrongdoings, something that is still much lacking in the procedures.

Besides, Sayumporn said, environmental impacts take time to be proved, and it’s often that the cases are over before a petition is filed against them. Worse, the cases are often repeated because parties causing damage have no fear due to lack of proper compensation demands.

Rehabilitation processes, meanwhile, hit a snag because there are no consistent approaches or agencies directly responsible for the work, Sayumporn said.

“If we talk about the problems that we have in proceeding with legal procedures in environmental cases, there are several, but in conclusion, it’s a splintering and separation of authority to pursue cases, or sometimes the authority is overlapped due to lack of clarity over who is responsible,” said Sayumporn.

Sayumporn said that it’s the right time for the country to integrate the work and promulgate a unified environmental justice system with key bodies including the court, along with necessary tools being put in place to improve environmental justice delivery. As well, now is the time to further develop the system to take care of future environmental issues that arise.

Currently, the justice court’s environmental division would take up criminal cases regarding environmental issues, while the civil court would take up civil lawsuits in connection with the environment.

The Administrative Court, meanwhile, would consider complaints in regard to state misconduct related to the environment.

They have different authority, and as such apply different judgment in cases despite the same facts provided, Sayumporn said. This is not to mention what is needed at the middle and the beginning of the legal processes, he added.

“An environmental justice system needs structural reform, and minor changes here and there would contribute nothing to society. We need a major operation, not just applying bandages to our wounds,” said Sayumporn.

Buntoon Srethasirote, chair of the committee’s sub-panel on environmental management reform said environmental justice reform does not end with creating an environmental court, but has expanded to cover the whole system to ensure environmental justice to people.

However, things would not be fixed immediately but would take time to be developed and put in place, he said. For instance, the environmental court would be seen in the fourth year of reform, after the very first components, including the environmental justice system committee were set up to oversee the whole picture.

The proposal, Buntoon said, is part of the environmental reform proposals that would be submitted to the government by the end of this month, before being synergised with the national strategy, before being implemented by next April.

Some participants suggested the panel consider including early steps toward environmental justice, such as applying the precautionary principle to prevent damage as well as access to information.

The proposal will be presented, along with other proposals, to the last public hearing by the committee tomorrow in Bangkok