Responding to the caning of an unmarried couple in the Indonesian province of Aceh for kissing and livestreaming it on social media, Amnesty International’s Co-Regional Director Montse Ferrer said:
“Today’s public caning of a young man and woman simply for kissing is a horrifying act of discrimination, and a grim reminder of the enduring human rights violations permitted under the Islamic Criminal Code in Indonesia’s Aceh province.
“The punishment shows how authorities are expanding their use of Sharia law to target peaceful expression online, as well as offline. Sharia police in Aceh appear to be intensifying digital monitoring efforts as they seek to punish acts deemed to violate Sharia law, including public displays of intimacy outside marriage.
“Caning is an inherently cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment that frequently crosses the threshold into torture. Indonesia’s authorities must end the criminalization of consensual intimacy and repeal all discriminatory bylaws that permit corporal punishment.
“Indonesia, as a member of the UN Human Rights Council and a state party to the Convention Against Torture, must align its laws – including in Aceh – with its constitutional commitments to equality and non-discrimination. Corporal punishment has no place in a just and humane society.”
