Inside E-LAW: Wiwiek Awiati, Welcome Meche, Volunteers Making a Difference
Protecting the Environment Through Law in Indonesia
Wiwiek Awiati, Executive Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL)
Wiwiek Awiati, Executive Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), visited Eugene in late September to work with E-LAW U.S. staff attorneys to build ICEL’s capacity to bring class action law suits on behalf of communities suffering environmental abuses.
In August, ICEL won a victory for a local community that experienced devastating land-slides in the wake of a logging company’s clear cut operation. ICEL’s case was Indonesia’s first environmental class action law suit.
ICEL has many other firsts. The organization helped draft and pass many laws which will improve citizen participation, including the first Freedom of Information Act, legislation creating a procedure for class action law suits, the Whistle Blower Protection Act, and a law creating a right to participate in and observe decision makers performing their public duties.
Following the 1997 forest fires, ICEL helped file suit against a Malaysian company that was using slash and burn practices on rubber plantations, which played a key role in the fires. As a result, the company’s director landed in prison. This was the Indonesian Supreme Court’s first application of the corporate criminal liability statute in an environmental case.
Perhaps even more important than this legal precedent is ICEL’s ongoing training program in environmental law and enforcement—a crucial mechanism that helped produce the forest fire verdict. During the past four years over a thousand judges, prosecutors, and police officers have passed through ICEL’s training program.
Wiwiek spoke about her organization’s work at a University of Oregon brown bag lunch sponsored by
E-LAW U.S., the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, and the Public Interest and Public Service Law Program.
The next great frontier of public interest law in Indonesia, as elsewhere, will be prodding multinational corporations toward responsible global citizenship. ICEL’s flexible, innovative, and multifaceted approach should produce results. In the meantime, congratulations to Wiwiek and ICEL for their recent victories.
Welcome Meche!
Meche Lu, E-LAW U.S. Environmental Research Scientist
E-LAW U.S. is happy to announce that Mercedes ”Meche” Lu has joined the U.S. office as Environmental Research Scientist. Meche has collaborated with E-LAW U.S. for many years from her home office in Lima, Peru. In Eugene, Meche will work closely with E-LAW U.S. Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik to provide grassroots advocates around the world with the scientific tools and resources they need to protect the environment through law. Meche has traveled and will continue to travel throughout Latin America to provide E-LAW partners with hands-on scientific support (see page 2). Meche earned degrees in biochemistry and pharmacy from the National University of San Marcos and studied environmental management and ecology at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru. She is a founding member of the Peruvian Toxicology Association and helped found E-LAW Peru in 1991.
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Volunteers Making a Difference
E-LAW U.S. volunteers Marlies Wierenga (left) and Emmett Soper.
Generous support from volunteers and interns makes the high impact work of E-LAW U.S. possible. Since May, 2003, twenty-three students and professionals have volunteered their time and skills at E-LAW U.S. Volunteers researched corporate activities and environmental laws, reached out to environmental advocates in new countries, translated E-LAW network messages, compiled resources on the economics behind environmental impacts, and supported our communication and development efforts. Volunteers provided invaluable help to E-LAW U.S. and grassroots advocates around the world.
To learn more about the E-LAW U.S. volunteer program, please visit our volunteer page at: http://www.elaw.org/getinvolved.
A special thanks to the following volunteers and interns: Colin Barey, Caitlin Cspikay-Brehm, Ryan Casey, Sue Graham, Sarah Hale, Damien Hermecz, Katie Higgins, Holly Homnick, Julia Jackson, Brian Katsura, Taku Noguchi, Wren Patton, Richard Rodrigues, Shane Sanderson, Will Sarvis, Solana Sawyer, Emmett Soper, Jessica Southwick, Robyn Steinlauf, Jack Stillwell, Annie White, Marlies Wierenga, and Riaz Zaman.