 |
| Indonesian gay activists hold posters during a protest demanding equality for LGBT people in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2011. |
Just a month after Indonesia’s Constitutional Court rejected a petition to ban gay and extramarital sex, the country’s parliament seems poised to pass a sweeping set of revisions to the nation’s criminal code that would criminalize extramarital and gay sex. Civil society and activists are extremely concerned. But at least one legislator has told reporters that all 25 members of a working committee have agreed to all the proposed revisions.
There are concerns that the bylaws will increase raids and vigilantism, overcrowd prisons, and further persecute Indonesia’s LGBT community.
The two sections that have most alarmed activists are Article 484 and Article 496, which suggest five years in prison for extramarital sex and imprisonment for same-sex relations with a minor. Article 496 also criminalizes same-sex relations between adults if there is “violence or threat of violence, breaching public morality, publications containing pornography,” according to Andreas Harsono, a senior Indonesia researcher with Human Rights Watch who translated the proposed revisions. He says the latter is so broadly phrased that essentially all gay sex would become illegal.
See full story here.
1 comment:
When I first heard about this I felt physically sick, and it's no better reading it again. In some ways this has the potential to be even worse than what's been going on in Russia for the last several years, which alone speaks volumes for itself. And this measure, supported by ALL parties(!), comes from a government which claims to be 'secular' - Hah!
Post a Comment