Overview

Lack of transparency made independent monitoring of the human rights situation difficult. The phased implementation of the amended Penal Code continued. The Code, which seeks to impose Shari’a law, provides for the death penalty as well as corporal punishment that amount to torture and other ill-treatment for a range of offences. It also contains provisions which discriminate against women. The Shari’a legislation completed its first phase of implementation. Offences that are punishable with whipping or death sentence such as false claims (Article 206), deriding verses of the Qur’an or Hadith by non-Muslims (Article 111), and abetting or attempt to abet, had not been enforced. In February, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the government to repeal Penal Code amendments which would impose the death penalty and corporal punishment on children; and to raise the minimum age for marriage.

Read more