LION INDONESIA team in their office in Bandung in West Java.
Following a historic win in the Indonesian Supreme Court earlier this year by the Indonesian ban asbestos network, which resulted in a court order for all asbestos materials to display health warning labelling, asbestos roof sheet manufacturers in Indonesia are suing all those who brought the case to the Supreme Court for damages.
LION Indonesia is an advocate for workers’ health and safety rights and key campaigner for an asbestos ban in Indonesia.
The Fibre Cement Manufacturers’ Association (FICMA) tort action against consumer protection organisation LPKSM Yasa Nata Budi management and the Ban Asbestos Network is an attempt to overturn that landmark Supreme Court decision in May, mandating that all asbestos roofing products carry a hazard warning label.
FICMA claims that because white asbestos is not listed under the Rotterdam Convention—an international treaty governing the exchange of information for hazardous chemical trade—it does not need to be labelled as dangerous.
Attempts to list white asbestos (chrysotile) under the Rotterdam Convention have been blocked to date by a small number of countries, mostly major exporters such as Russia, for nearly 20 years. A listing on the convention requires the consensus of all Parties currently (Read more). Despite support for listing of chrysotile by the vast majority of the 167 Parties to the Convention, it has been continually blocked by just 1 – 10 Parties since 2006.
All types of asbestos are banned in Australia and 69 other countries and Territories, including the United States of America, the European Union, Japan and Korea, but it is still in widespread use in many parts of Asia. Indonesia is ranked as the world’s third-largest importer and the largest in Southeast Asia.
FICMA argues that the warning label would cause “opportunity loss” of their revenue. They are suing for large financial damages.
LION INDONESIA Director Surya Ferdian said he was confident they would win the case. However, he was aware the FICMA legal action was only one strategy Indonesian asbestos manufacturers would deploy to stop the LION INDONESIA campaign to eliminate asbestos-related disease.
“FICMA’s lawsuit against Yasa Nata Budi is wrongly targeted because we are not making the regulation,” he said. “It is just another delaying tactic to prevent the Supreme Court order from being implemented.”
Consumers right to know about what they are buying
LION INDONESIA staff are fully committed to eradicating the killer dust, asbestos.
“We won in the Supreme Court,” said Ferdian. “But the court order is still not carried out. It could be some time before the label comes into effect.”
Australian law firm Maurice Blackburn has long experience fighting asbestos companies like James Hardie before it transitioned to non-asbestos production and was able to brief the Indonesian legal team and provide additional evidence to support their Supreme Court win in May. Maurice Blackburn principal Jonathon Walsh is also assisting the LION INDONESIA legal team in the current action.
Ferdian said the fight to stop the use of asbestos in Indonesia faced increasing challenges from the asbestos industry.
“We are alert that what we are doing for Indonesian public health and safety could be sabotaged,” he said.
Ferdian stressed the importance of LION INDONESIA, together with other Indonesian institutions and APHEDA, building a large network in the region and internationally with countries that have already prohibited asbestos.
“We believe we cannot work alone. FICMA is a huge association with a lot of money and resources. We need regional, as well as international networking to give us strength to face them. Humanity has the power to fight against dehumanisation,” he said.
The Supreme Court win, led by local lawyers in Indonesia, was assisted by Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA with pro bono support from Maurice Blackburn lawyers. The LION legal action was also supported by the Indonesian Ban Asbestos Network (INA-BAN), coordinated by Muchamad Darisman, together with the independent community Consumer Protection Institute and the Aysa Nata Budi Foundation.
The court win was promptly followed by the Jakarta Health Office banning asbestos in homes. See story here
LION INDONESIA has also been successful in getting its hometown of Bandung in West Java to ban asbestos in new commercial and residential buildings.
Report and photos by Zoe Reynolds.
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The Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA campaign work in Indonesia with LION INDONESIA is supported by many National Australian trade unions, Unions WA, Australian Aid, the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency, and the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat.
