New criminal code will continue to criminalise homosexuality in Indonesia

The Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP) has seen a committee working for several months on a range of new amendments. One of the proposed amendments was the criminalisation of homosexuality. The controversial proposal has come amongst a wider crackdown on the LGBT+ community in the South East Asian country over the last few months.

Arsul Sani, a politician from the United Development Party working on the KUHP, has recently told press that the criminalisation of homosexuality will remain has part of their planned amendments. Talking to tempo.com, he said, “Instead of deleting the article, we will revise it so that people won’t see it as discriminatory.”

It is unclear how homosexuality can be criminalised without the law being discriminatory.

Other amendments to the KUHP will reportedly include: making it illegal to defame the president, making premarital sex and cohabitation illegal, and making it illegal to promote contraception, as well as introducing the death penalty.