Brunei will today introduce its strict new Islamic law that makes gay sex and adultery offences punishable by stoning to death. The new laws that come into effect today also cover a wide range of other crimes including punishment for theft by amputation.
The move has sparked an international outcry.
Brunei, a tiny monarchy on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia, based its new penal code on Shariah, Islamic law based on the Quran and other writings, though interpretations of Shariah can vary widely. Brunei “is a sovereign Islamic and fully independent country and, like all other independent countries, enforces its own rule of laws,” the prime minister’s office released this week.
“Brunei’s new penal code is barbaric to the core, imposing archaic punishments for acts that shouldn’t even be crimes,” Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, a nongovernmental organization, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Brunei has a population of just 430,000 but boasts tremendous oil wealth, which has made the sultan ruler, since 1967, one of the wealthiest people on earth. The 72-year-old is also the prime minister and holds several other titles.
Global reactions
Sultan Hassanal heads the Brunei Investment Agency which owns the Dorchester Collection, an operator of some of the world’s top hotels including the Dorchester in London and the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.
The controversial proposal has provoked strong opposition worldwide, and actor George Clooney called for the immediate boycott of hotels owned by the Brunei Investment Group, which is controlled by the Sultan of Brunei, in an op-ed he wrote for Deadline.
Elton John joined Clooney to lead the boycott of the luxury international hotel chain owned by the Sultan.
Ellen Degeneres also called for people to “rise up” saying “we need to do something now”.
The Australian Government condemned the laws described by the United Nations as “cruel and inhuman”, with Foreign Minister Marise Payne saying that she had raised concerns directly with her counterpart in Brunei.
“We absolutely oppose the death penalty and are committed to the rights of LGBTI people. We will continue to advocate for human rights in the region & beyond,” she wrote in a Tweet.
Australian Senator Penny Wog claimed Brunei’s penal code would be in breach of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Wong posted in a statement on Twitter, “(Australia’s) Labor (Party) is deeply concerned by the Brunei government’s plans to implement new laws that would see adultery and homosexual acts between consenting adults punishable by death,” she tweeted.
A petition has been set up calling on the Government to ban Royal Brunei Airlines from flying to Australia.
Virgin Australia, on Wednesday, confirmed it had severed its staff travel deal with the sultanate’s national carrier over the new anti-gay laws. The Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby called on Canberra to ensure the safety of Australians is protected.
Meanwhile, the gay community in Brunei has been forced to flee. An ex-government employee from Brunei, who left the nation last year after being charged with sedition for a Facebook post that was critical of the government, said people were “afraid”.
“The gay community in Brunei has never been open but when Grindr [a gay dating app] came that helped people meet in secret. But now, what I’ve heard is that hardly anyone is using Grindr anymore,” Shahiran S Shahrani Md told the BBC. “They’re afraid that they might talk to a police officer pretending to be gay. It hasn’t happened yet but because of the new laws, people are afraid.”
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