Indonesia: adoption of a new Penal Code which worries NGOs and activists

Indonesian Minister of Laws and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly, in the Parliament of Jakarta at the time of the ratification of the country's new Penal Code, this Tuesday, December 6, 2022. AP

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The initial project was to reform an Indonesian Penal Code dating from colonial times.

The final result, approved on Tuesday, December 6 by lawmakers, is a jumble of different measures that worry NGOs and activists, such as the criminalization of sex outside marriage and the promotion of contraception, or even increased severity towards the blasphemy.

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With our correspondent in the region,

According to the Indonesian executive, this new Penal Code voted on Tuesday in Parliament is the result of a reform enterprise supposed to modernize an old Criminal Code.

But reading it, many human rights defenders see it as a retrograde text and disconnected from the reality of the country.

Thus, even if millions of Indonesian couples, in rural areas or in indigenous communities, are not formally married, this new Code, which is supposed to come into force in three years, punishes extramarital relations with one year's imprisonment.

#Indonesia 🇮🇩 adopted on Tuesday a text criminalizing sexual relations outside marriage, also prohibiting the cohabitation of unmarried couples.

MPs have said they want to free him from the Dutch colonial penal code pic.twitter.com/trdPbrmsxP

— FRANCE 24 French (@France24_fr) December 6, 2022

And if this reform of the Penal Code was supposed to dust off the old text inherited from the colonial era, there is one point that remains unchanged, namely the prohibition on insulting the president and state institutions.

An offense synonymous with obstructing freedom of expression, worry several Indonesian journalists.

In addition to appearing as a decline in freedoms in the third largest democracy in the world, this new legislative arsenal is also worrying the economic spheres, which fear that foreign investors and tourists will now shun Indonesia because of these new laws. .

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