Human rights organizations have criticized the new law.
Yrjö Kokkonen,
Laura Kangas
The Indonesian parliament has approved the country’s long-prepared criminal law. The new law emphasizes the country’s Islamic tradition and strict approach to sexuality.
The law prohibits sex outside of marriage under the threat of up to a year in prison. The law also applies to foreigners in the country.
Unmarried, but living together, people of different sexes can receive a six-month sentence.
Abortion is prohibited, but there is an exception to the ban for rape victims and in cases where the pregnancy threatens the mother’s life.
Offering contraceptives remains among the prohibited things, as does mocking religion, the country’s president, state institutions and national ideology.
Surprisingly, however, the parliament decided to remove the section from the bill that would have prohibited sex between people of the same sex.
Human rights organizations criticized the law
Human rights organizations have criticized the law as too loosely worded. The law is also considered to prevent normal relationships between people and restrict freedom of expression.
Islam is the dominant religion in Indonesia. Most of the country’s Muslims are religiously moderate, but religious conservatism has gained popularity in the country’s politics in recent years.
Attempts were made to bring the new criminal law into force already in 2019, but at that time the reform collapsed due to widespread protests.
Sources: Reuters, AP