NEW CRIMINAL CODE OUTLAWS SEX OUTSIDE MARRIAGE IN INDONESIA

Tue 6 December 2022:

Indonesia has passed a new Criminal Code that makes sex outside of marriage and cohabitation illegal.

The new laws apply to both Indonesians and foreigners and reinstate a ban on insulting the president, state institutions, or Pancasila, Indonesia’s national ideology.

The new criminal code, which was approved unanimously by parliament on Tuesday, replaces a framework that had been in use since independence in 1946 and was a mix of Dutch law, customary law known as hukum adat, and modern Indonesian law.

“We have tried our best to accommodate the important issues and different opinions which were debated. However, it is time for us to make a historical decision on the penal code amendment and to leave the colonial criminal code we inherited behind,” Yasonna Laoly, minister of law and human rights, told parliament ahead of the vote.

The new code must still be signed by the president, according to Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights Edward Hiariej. It will also not apply immediately, with the transition from the old code to the new one expected to take a maximum of three years.

A copy of the new code seen by the Associated Press showed that the charge of insult to a sitting president carries a prison term of as long as three years.

Sex before marriage was not illegal in Indonesia before the code was passed, although adultery was.

Under the new law, parents or children will be able to report unmarried couples to the police if they suspect them of having sex — something that critics have said is a move towards moral policing and could also be used to target members of the LGBTQ community.

Both sex before marriage and adultery will be punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine under the code.

Cohabitation will be punishable by six months in prison or a fine, although only if reported to the police by parents, children, or a spouse.

Rights groups say the proposals underscore the increasing conservatism of a country long hailed for its religious tolerance, with secularism enshrined in its constitution.

“We are going backward… repressive laws should have been abolished but the bill shows that the arguments of scholars abroad are true, that our democracy is indisputably in decline,” Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid told the AFP news agency.

The criminal code can be challenged in the Constitutional Court if it is considered that the correct procedure was not followed before it was passed, including seeking relevant and transparent public participation.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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