Outside a Mosque in Indonesia’s Aceh province a young man stands in front of a crowd of hundred of onlookers, he wears a traditional white koko shirt, and stands as a hooded man hits him with a cane. A police officer counts each stoke and the crowd cheer after each stroke hits the man’s body. […]
Human Rights Watch have warned that rising discrimination against the LGBTI community in Indonesia is having a negative effect on the countries efforts to tackle HIV. “The Indonesian government should recognize that its role in abuses against LGBT people is seriously compromising the country’s response to HIV,” said Kyle Knight, LGBT rights researcher at Human […]
ASEAN parliamentarians for Human Rights have publicly urged Indonesia’s parliament not to criminalize homosexuality. The Indonesian parliament is currently debating a proposal to amend the country’s criminal code, the changes would make homosexuality illegal in Indonesia and also criminalise all sex outside of matrimony. During the debate last week one Indonesian MP argued in favour […]
An Indonesian MP has said gay people should face the death penalty or life imprisonment. Muslim Ayud made the comments in the country’s House of Representatives as they debated amending the country’s criminal code. The proposed amendments would see gay sex, and sex outside of wedlock, being made illegal. Representing the Islamist National Mandate Party (PAN) […]
Greens senator Janet Rice has written to the Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, calling for action against Indonesia for the discrimination of its LGBTI community. Senator Rice posted a letter to Twitter earlier this week arguing that Australia had a responsibility to protect the human rights of LGBTI people in Indonesia. In recent months there […]
Indonesia is moving to classify homosexuality as a mental disorder ahead of a push to criminalize gay sex and all sex outside of heterosexual marriage. On Friday the Indonesian Health Ministry announced it was set to publish a medical guide based on two reports from the past two years. One of the reports, published in […]
Indonesian media has reported that twelve transgender women have been arrested in Northern Aceh. Early on Sunday morning Sharia Police reportedly arrested the transgender women, who are known locally as waria – a portmanteau of the Indonesian words for man and woman. The women were detained as part of a police operation labeled operasi penyakit masyarakat, […]
An Indonesian court has handed down two-year prison sentences to ten men who were charged with breaking the country’s anti-pornography laws. The men were accused of taking part in a ‘gay sex party’ at a Jakarta Sauna. Over 140 men were arrested at the venue earlier this year, most were let off, but ten have […]
Indonesia’s top court has rejected an attempt to have gay sex, and all sex outside of marriage, criminalised. A panel of nine judges considered the the petition to have the laws changed, four judges argued in favour of making all gay sex illegal, and limiting consensual heterosexual activity to those who are married. The push […]
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has argued that the country is still a tolerant nation that embraces pluralism despite growing concerns about religious freedoms and crackdowns on the LGBTI community. In a new interview the Indonesian President said the country still embraced a moderate form of Islam. “Pluralism has always been a part of Indonesia’s DNA,” Joko […]
