Indonesia Court Rejects Petition to Bar Consensual Sex Outside Marriage Skip to main content

Indonesia Court Rejects Petition to Bar Consensual Sex Outside Marriage

Reuters

Couples raise their hands during a mass wedding ceremony for people from lower income groups, at Istora Senayan stadium in Jakarta, July 19, 2011. / Reuters


JAKARTA — Indonesia’s constitutional court on Thursday narrowly rejected a controversial petition to bar all consensual sex outside of marriage in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country.

Five of nine judges voted for the case to be thrown out, in a victory for rights activists who had feared the petition brought by a conservative group would spur moral policing and further discrimination, particularly targeting the gay community in Indonesia.

Chief justice Arief Hidayat said existing laws on adultery did not conflict with the constitution and that it was not the authority of the constitutional court to create a new policy.

“The plaintiff should submit their petition to lawmakers, and there it should be an important input in the ongoing revision of the national criminal code,” Hidayat said.

“Based on that view, the constitutional court is of the opinion that the petition is not legally sound.”

Indonesia’s parliament is currently deliberating revisions to the national criminal code.

The Southeast Asian country has seen a rise of a hardline, politicized Islam in recent years, which until recently had stayed on the fringe of the nation’s politics.

The petition put forward by the Family Love Alliance (AILA), a group of conservative academics and activists, called for the definition of adultery to apply not just to married couples but to anyone in a marriage or outside it – effectively making all sex outside of marriage a crime.

In their complaint, AILA said certain articles in the national criminal code “threaten the resilience of families and therefore of Indonesia itself.”

Some rights activists said the petition was partially aimed at criminalizing gay sex, which is currently not regulated by the law, except in the ultra-conservative province of Aceh and in cases of child abuse.

https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/asia/indonesia-court-rejects-petition-bar-consensual-sex-outside-marriage.html
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do...
1 comment
Read more

Ancient Rakhine City of Mrauk-U Proposed for UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Irrawaddy YANGON—Myanmar’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture submitted the final draft of its nomination for Mrauk-U to become a World Heritage Site to UNESCO on Monday, four months after the ministry submitted the first draft of its nomination in September 2019. If the application succeeds, Mrauk-U will be the third place in Myanmar to be inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, after the ancient cities of Bagan and Pyu. Mrauk-U is located in northern Rakhine State, around 60 km from the state capital of Sittwe. The ancient city was the seat of Arakanese kings from the 1400s until the late 1700s. At the height of their power, they controlled an area covering large parts of eastern Bengal, modern-day Rakhine State and the western part of central Myanmar. Much of the city’s remains are well-preserved and some 380 historic temples are scattered between the lush hills of northern Rakhine. Mrauk-U Heritage Trust chairwoman Daw Khin Than told The Irrawaddy on Tue...
1 comment
Read more

Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera

The Life Story of A Distinguished And Outstanding Bhikkhu The Most Venerable Saradawpharagree Sri Bhaddanta Chandramani Mahathera The Buddhist missionary Saradaw Ashin U Chandramani was endowed with great gifts and led a famous and long life. He was a very well known, distinguished and outstanding Bhikkhu Mahathera. While living in the Kushinagar Monastery, a place close to where the Lord Buddha had passed away to Nirvana, the Government of India had offered, and he had accepted, the highest, most honourable and respected title "Guru Guru MahaGuru". He became the first ever President of all Buddhists in India.A World Buddhist Conference took place in Kathmandu during the reign of King Mahindra of Nepal. The Conference was very well attended by over one hundred thousand Buddhists from various parts of the world and it was opened by King Mahindra himself. As requested by the King, Saradawpharagree blessed all the participants with the power of Triple Gems...
Post a Comment
Read more