Indonesia's House of Representatives voted through a proposal for a new crime bar earlier this week. Now the country's president is postponing the last vote in Parliament on the future, a vote that would probably have led to the proposal being implemented.

Katarina Stenkvist, expert at RFSL.

The new legislation, which can still become a reality, has been met by strong criticism from several human rights organizations. Many of the new laws make life difficult for minorities, women and LGBT groups. For example, Human Rights Watch calls the new legislation "catastrophic".

"The situation is getting worse since 2017"

Katarina Stenkvist is an international project manager at RFSL and responsible for RFSL's programs supporting various LGBTQ organizations in Southeast Asia. She says that the situation for LGBTQ groups has deteriorated in recent years.

- The situation has been getting worse since 2017. Then, both politicians and the media in Indonesia started talking openly about LGBTQ people.

So what is the situation for different LGBT groups in Indonesia at present?

- They are attacked and risk being arrested by the police. Many have had to go underground. Today, there is no national law that criminalizes same-sex relationships, but there are local regulations that do. Also, there is no law that protects against discrimination.

What would the new legislation mean?

- We see this legislation as a way for conservative and religious leaders to push an even more conservative society in Indonesia. The new legislation affects many more than just LGBT groups negatively. For example, all the women of the country, she says.

Laws against sex outside of marriage

The new laws are feared to lead to restrictions on freedom of expression, that it will be illegal to live together outside of a traditional marriage and that it will be prohibited to have sex outside of marriage, Katarina Stenkvist says. The laws also provide the opportunity to identify people to the police if one suspects that they are living in a relationship without being married.

- It is extremely serious, says Katarina Stenkvist.

It will also be illegal to disseminate information about contraceptives.

- You can imagine what this does for young women in the extension, how they can, for example, find it difficult to go to school if they become pregnant, she says.

And the laws that make public "immoral behavior" unlawful can hit all LGBTQ groups extra hard.

- Such legislation can, for example, be used against transgender people, explains Katarina Stenkvist.