Overview

Over the course of the past few months, the House of Representatives (“DPR”) has made a concerted effort to pass the latest version of the Draft Criminal Law Code (“RKUHP 2019”)[1]. This attempt to implement the long-awaited revision of the now century-old Criminal Law Code (“KUHP”) finally looked set to reach the finish line in September 2019.[2] However, in the wake of a string of relentless demonstrations which hit the streets over a number of days and which involved both university students and activists, things have once again been put on hold. The demonstrators were primarily protesting a number of controversial articles contained under RKUHP 2019 which they asserted violated commonly held notions of human rights. In the wake of the demonstrations, the DPR postponed the passing of RKUHP 2019 until the new DPR members assume their positions after having achieved victory in this year’s national elections.[3]