HRW Urges Brunei to Repeal Sharia Law

The Wonderful World of Islam

By Darryl Coote

Human Rights Watch is urging Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei to not only repeal his country's newly enacted Sharia law penal code but to ratify international human rights accords it has already signed. Photo by Drew Angerer/UPI/Drew Angerer | License Photo

(UPI) -- An international human rights organization called on the sultan of Brunei to repeal his country's newly enacted Sharia penal code as it violates a range of internationally recognized human rights.

Enacted April 3, the Syariah Penal Code imposes death by stoning for extramarital and anal sex, limb amputation for theft and 40 whip lashes for lesbian sex, among other restrictions critics say target women and sexual and gender minorities.

"The provisions contained in the penal code pave the way for multiple violations of human rights, including the right to life, freedom from torture and other ill-treatment, freedom of expression, privacy and religion," four directors of Human Rights Watch said in a letter dated Wednesday to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who is also the prime minister of Brunei.

A detailed report of the new penal code attached to the letter states that the code violates Brunei's obligations to international human rights conventions the country has signed, including the Convention on Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as well as others it has signed but not yet ratified.

Again I mention that Islam tends toward radicalism and Sharia. This is another example.

"As a member state of the United Nations, Brunei has pledged to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose provisions are considered reflective of customary international law," the report said.

Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said the new penal code is a "multifaceted assault on fundamental human rights."

"The sultan holds absolute power in Brunei, so responsibility for this abhorrent penal code falls squarely on his shoulders," Robertson said in a statement. "Brunei's repeated commitments to respect human rights amount to little so long as the Syariah Penal Code is in force."

The rollout of the new penal code was met with opposition from both celebrities, such as actor George Clooney and comedian Ellen DeGeneres who encouraged boycotts of Brunei-linked hotel brands, and countries such as the United States, Britain, France and Germany who protested the country's use of Sharia law.

Sharia law is full of Allah's mercy and blessings

In response, the sultan on May 5 said there are many "misperceptions" about the code that may cause "apprehension." He said despite the implementation of the penal code, Brunei will continue to uphold its de facto moratorium on the death penalty.

"There should not be any concern on the Sharia law as it is full of Allah's mercy and blessings," he said.

Islam must have a radically different interpretation of the meaning of 'mercy' and 'blessings'! 

However, Human Rights Watch rejected this explanation Wednesday, stating the moratorium "is subject to political whim and could be lifted at any time, while leaving in place dozens of other rights-offending provisions." The death penalty is also only one of many issues with the penal code, the directors said in their letter.

Human Rights Watch then urged the sultan to immediately repeal the penal code, ensure the new one is aligned with international human rights law and ratify conventions and treaties Brunei has previously signed.

"The sultan should revoke this law and fulfil his promise to respect human rights," Robertson said.

Iranian human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Sentenced to 38 years, 148 Lashes, Husband Says

That should teach Iranian women to shut up and go back to being invisible!

The joys of being a woman in Islam!

Sotoudeh has represented opposition activists

and women who removed mandatory headscarf

Thomson Reuters ·

Nasrin Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, wrote on Facebook that she had been given a sentence of

decades in jail and 148 lashes, unusually harsh even for Iran which cracks down hard on dissent and

regularly imposes death sentences for some crimes. (Arash Ashourinia/The Associated Press)

Nasrin Sotoudeh, an internationally renowned human rights lawyer jailed in Iran, was handed a new sentence on Monday which her husband said was 38 years in prison and 148 lashes.

Sotoudeh, who has represented opposition activists including women prosecuted for removing their mandatory headscarf, was arrested in June and charged with spying, spreading propaganda and insulting Iran's supreme leader, her lawyer said.

She also was jailed in 2010 for spreading propaganda and conspiring to harm state security — charges she denied — and was released after serving half her six-year term. The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Official sources are giving a different story. A judge at a revolutionary court in Tehran, Mohammad Moqiseh, said on Monday Sotoudeh had been sentenced to five years for assembling against national security and two years for insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, wrote on Facebook that the sentence was decades in jail and 148 lashes, unusually harsh even for Iran, which cracks down hard on dissent and regularly imposes death sentences for some crimes.

The news comes days after Iran appointed a new head of the judiciary — Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who is a protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The appointment is seen as weakening the political influence of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate.

Iran, often accused of human rights abuse, said on Monday it had allowed UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore to visit Iran last week at the head of a "technical mission."

The visit, confirmed by a UN official, appeared to be the first in many years by UN human rights investigators who have been denied access by the government.

The UN investigator on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, raised Sotoudeh's case at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, saying that last week she "was reportedly convicted of charges relating to her work and could face a lengthy prison sentence."

"Worrying patterns of intimidation, arrest, prosecution, and ill-treatment of human rights defenders, lawyers, and labour rights activists signal an increasingly severe state response," Rehman said.