© Global Look Press / Zheng HuansongSultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei Darussalam
A harsher version of penal code, which includes
sharia-based punishments for things like adultery and same-sex relations, is to come into force next week in Brunei. The 'human rights defenders' in Washington, however, are silent.
Brunei, a tiny Muslim-majority absolute monarchy located in Southeastern Asia is about to put into force the last amendment to its criminal code as part of a reform initiated back in 2014. The renewed code, which is aimed at reflecting Islam's tenets of morality and punishment for those who break them, will include caning and even stoning to death of Muslims, who are found guilty of adultery, sodomy and rape.
The government wanted to roll in the new laws in stages, but put the process on pause after international public outcry over the milder phase one, which included fines and jail terms for offenders, but not corporal punishment. Last week a rights group reported that Brunei quietly announced earlier this year the date, when the harsher version of the code would come into force: April 3.
Comment: Note that in the study they only used estimates to determine food consumption. Those estimates come from "two non-consecutive days of 24-hour dietary recall data." Food consumption surveys are notorious for being inaccurate (people often don't remember everything they ate or lie to make it look like they are eating better than they are) and don't necessarily reflect how people are really eating. See also: