Indonesia’s Parliament unanimously passed a long-awaited revision of the country’s penal code on Tuesday, December 6, 2022 that criminalizes sex outside of marriage for citizens as well as foreigners.

It also prohibits promotion of contraception and defamation of the president and state institutions.

The amended code also expands an existing blasphemy law and maintains a five-year prison term for deviations from the central tenets of Indonesia’s six recognized religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

Citizens can face a 10-year prison term for associating with organizations that follow Marxist-Leninist ideology and a four-year sentence for spreading communism.

The code maintains the previous criminalization of abortion but adds exceptions for women with life-threatening medical conditions and for rape, provided that the fetus is less than 12 weeks old, in accordance with what is already provided in a 2004 Medical Practice Law.

Rights groups criticized some of the revisions as vague and warned that adding them to the code could penalize normal activities and threaten freedom of expression and privacy rights.

The revised code also preserves the death penalty within the criminal justice system despite calls from the National Commission on Human Rights and other groups to abolish capital punishment, as dozens of other countries have done.

Nonetheless under the new code, the death penalty has a probationary period. If within a period of 10 years the convict behaves well, then the death penalty will be altered to life imprisonment or 20 years’ imprisonment.

Under Indonesian regulations, legislation passed by Parliament becomes law after being signed by the president.

However, even without the president’s signature, it automatically takes effect after 30 days unless the president issues a regulation to cancel it.

President Joko Widodo is widely expected to sign the revised code in light of its extended approval process in Parliament.

Law Likely To Take Effect Gradually

According to Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights, Edward Hiariej, the law is likely to gradually take effect over a period of up to three years.

“A lot of implementing regulations must be worked out, so it’s impossible in one year,” he intimated.

The amended code states that sex outside marriage is punishable by a year in jail and cohabitation is punishable by six months.

Adultery charges, however, must be based on police reports lodged by a spouse, parents or children.

Additionally, the just passed legislation restores a ban on insulting a sitting president or vice president, state institutions and the national ideology.

Insults to an incumbent president must be reported by the president and can lead to up to three years in jail.

Hiariej opined that the government provided “the strictest possible explanation that distinguishes between insults and criticism.”

A former revised code was prepared for passage in 2019 but President Widodo urged lawmakers to delay a vote amid rising public criticism that led to nationwide protests.

Opponents said the former code contained articles that discriminated against minorities and that the legislative process lacked transparency.

Widodo instructed Law and Human Rights Minister, Yasonna Laoly, to obtain suggestions from various groups as lawmakers debated the articles.

A parliamentary taskforce finalized the bill in November, 2022 and lawmakers unanimously approved it on Tuesday, December 6, 2022.