From Human Right Watch. Here is an excerpt:

Indonesia’s new criminal code puts at risk the basic rights of millions of people in the country, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2023. Populations already marginalized, including women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and religious minority communities will be particularly affected.

“The new Indonesian criminal code plays into the hands of government officials who want to curtail freedom of religion, privacy, and expression,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “President Joko Widodo should take forceful action so that the criminal code and hundreds of discriminatory local regulations in Muslim-majority Indonesia don’t violate the rights of the country’s religious minority communities.”

In the 712-page World Report 2023, its 33rd edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in close to 100 countries. In her introductory essay, acting Executive Director Tirana Hassan says that in a world in which power has shifted, it is no longer possible to rely on a small group of mostly Global North governments to defend human rights. The world’s mobilization around Russia’s war in Ukraine reminds us of the extraordinary potential when governments realize their human rights obligations on a global scale. The responsibility is on individual countries, big and small, to apply a human rights framework to their policies, and then work together to protect and promote human rights.

Read the full article here.