Yahoo News Gay sex to be punishable by death in Brunei from beginning of April
Same-sex sexual acts will be punishable by death in Brunei next week as new provisions to the Penal Code come into force.
Punishments will include death by stoning for gay sex and amputation to robbery in Brunei Darussalam from 3 April.
Amnesty International hit out at the provisions to the Penal Code, describing them as “cruel and inhuman”.
Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Brunei Researcher at the human rights organisation, said: “Pending provisions in Brunei’s Penal Code would allow stoning and amputation as punishments – including for children, to name only their most heinous aspects.
“Brunei must immediately halt its plans to implement these vicious punishments, and revise its Penal Code in compliance with its human rights obligations.
“The international community must urgently condemn Brunei’s move to put these cruel penalties into practice.”
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Ms Chhoa-Howard added: “To legalise such cruel and inhuman penalties is appalling of itself.
“Some of the potential ‘offences’ should not even be deemed crimes at all, including consensual sex between adults of the same gender…
“Brunei’s Penal Code is a deeply flawed piece of legislation containing a range of provisions that violate human rights.
“As well as imposing cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments, it blatantly restricts the rights to freedom of expression, religion, and belief, and codifies discrimination against women and girls.”
Under international human rights law, corporal punishment in all its forms, such as stoning, amputation or whipping, constitutes torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
Brunei Darussalam has signed the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment – but has not yet ratified it.
