The Indonesian parliament has passed a new criminal law that makes sex outside of marriage a punishable offense punishable by up to a year in prison.
It is one of several moves that critics claim diminish people’s rights.
The new criminal code will not come into effect for another three years and also includes a ban on insulting the president and speaking out against state ideology.
Protesters staged small rallies outside the parliament in Jakarta this week.
It is one of several moves that critics claim diminish people’s rights.
The code, which will apply to both Indonesians and foreigners, includes various “morality” provisions that make unmarried couples living together and having sex unlawful. Rights groups say this disproportionately affects women, LGBT people and ethnic minorities in the country.
A person’s partner or parents can report them for the offence of having sex outside of marriage. Adultery will also be an offence for which people can be jailed.
According to rights activists, the new rule also restricts political expression and religious freedom.
Unmarried couples are prohibited from living together and having sex under “morality” regulations.
The code now includes six blasphemy laws, including apostasy (renouncing a religion). For the first time since its independence, Indonesia will be persuading someone to be a non-believer criminal.
New defamation laws also make it illegal to offend the president or advocate views contrary to national ideology.
However, legislators claimed that they had added protections for free speech and protests in the “public good.”
Nonetheless, Human Rights Watch declared on Tuesday that the new code’s provisions are a “disaster” for human rights.
The rights group’s Asia Director Elaine Pearson told the BBC it was a “huge setback for a country that has tried to portray itself as a modern Muslim democracy.”
The group’s Jakarta-based researcher, Andreas Harsano, said there were millions of couples in Indonesia without marriage certificates “especially among Indigenous peoples or Muslims in rural areas” who had married in specific religious ceremonies.
“These people will be theoretically breaking the law as living together could be punished up to six months in prison,” he told the BBC.
He added that research from Gulf states, where there are similar laws governing sex and relationships, showed women were punished and targeted by such morality laws more than men.
Indonesia is not a secular state. Atheism is unacceptable – technically you need to follow one of six prescribed religions. So it is a multi-religious state with an official ideology, Pancasila, which prioritises no faith over any other. That was Indonesia’s post-independence leader Sukarno’s idea, to discourage large parts of the archipelago where Muslims are not a majority from breaking away.
But since the fall of Suharto – who ruthlessly suppressed political Islamic groups – there has been growing mobilisation around Islamic values, the sense that Islam is threatened by outside influences and more conservatism in many areas of the island of Java, where more than half of Indonesians live. Political parties have responded to this and demanded tougher laws to police morals.
Current leader Jokowi is from the syncretic Javanese tradition that adheres to a more flexible form of Islam, but his main preoccupation is his legacy of economic development rather than tolerance and liberal values. He has shown, for example in the jailing of former Jakarta governor Ahok on blasphemy charges,that he’s willing to give hardline Muslims some of what they want.
The new code will come into effect in three years, by which time Jokowi will have left office at the end of his second term.
Indonesia is home to several religions but the majority of its 267 million people are Muslim. Since the country’s democratic transition in 1998, it follows a creed known as Pancasila, which does not prioritise any faith but does not accept atheism. However, local law in many areas of the country is informed by religious values. Some parts of Indonesia already have strict religion-based laws on sex and relationships.
The province of Aceh enforces strict Islamic law and has punished people for gambling, drinking alcohol and meeting members of the opposite sex.
Many Islamic civil groups in Indonesia have been pushing for more influence in shaping public policy in recent years.
Lawmakers on Tuesday praised the achievement of passing a new criminal code, one which had not been thoroughly revised since Indonesia became independent from Dutch rule.
A previous draft of the code was set to be passed in 2019 but sparked nationwide protests with tens of thousands taking part in demonstrations.
Many, including students, took to the streets and there were clashes with police in the capital Jakarta.
