Indonesia Parliament Approves Legislation On “Sex Outside Marriage” As Illegal

On Tuesday, Indonesia's parliament approved legislation that would make sex outside of marriage illegal, in what critics called a major setback for human rights in the world's most populous Muslim country.

Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, deputy house speaker, banged the gavel and shouted "legal" after the new criminal code was endorsed by all nine parties in a sweeping overhaul of the legal code.

For decades, there has been discussion about revising Indonesia's criminal code, which dates back to the Dutch colonial era.

Rights groups had protested the amendments, claiming that they would lead to a crackdown on civil liberties and political freedoms, as well as a shift toward fundamentalism in Muslim-majority Indonesia, where secularism is enshrined in the constitution.

"We made every effort to accommodate the important issues and different opinions which were debated,” Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly told parliament.

“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.”

The article criminalising sex outside marriage has been criticised by Indonesian business organisations as detrimental to tourism, though authorities insist foreigners travelling to Bali would not be affected.

The new code, which still needs to be approved by President Joko Widodo, will come into force after three years.

Some of the most controversial articles in the new code criminalise extra-marital sex, as well as the cohabitation of unmarried couples.

According to the text seen by AFP, sex outside of marriage will be punished with one year in prison while unmarried people living together could face six months in jail.

Albert Aries from the Law and Human Rights Ministry defended the amendments before the vote and said the law would protect marriage institutions.

Sex outside marriage could only be reported by a spouse, parents or children, drastically limiting the scope of the amendment, he said.

At a business conference before the vote on Tuesday, US ambassador to Indonesia Sung Yong Kim said he was concerned about “morality clauses” in the criminal code that can have a “negative” impact on businesses.

Previous drafts had planned to make homosexuality illegal, but this has disappeared from the final text.

But the new rules on adultery and cohabitation could also be used to “criminalise” the LGBTQ community in Indonesia said Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch, as the country does not acknowledge same-sex marriage.

Rights groups slammed the legislation as morality policing.

“The passing of the criminal code bill is clearly a step back in the protection of civil rights… particularly on the rights of freedom of expression and press freedom”, Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid told AFP.

An attempt to pass a similar draft law in 2019 brought tens of thousands onto the streets in protests which eventually forced the government to back down.

On Tuesday around a dozen protesters gathered in downtown Jakarta holding banners.

“You reapply the colonial-era law,” read one.

“Want to colonise your own tribe and blood?”