Yasonna: Colonial-Inherited Articles of KUHP Neglect Criminal Law Principles

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said the criminal code (KUHP) which is the heritage from the Dutch colonial era deviated from the general principles of criminal law.

“The Criminal Code as the Dutch colonial legacy has developed massively and deviates significantly from the principles of general criminal law,” said Yasonna in a written statement on Monday, June 14, 2021.

The development, he argued, is closely related to both pure criminal law and administrative criminal law, especially regarding the three main problems in criminal law as stated by Packer in "The Limits of The Criminal Sanctions".

Yasonna opined that the modern criminal system should always consider human values, whether related to the perpetrators of crimes or victims.

Thus, the revision of the Criminal Code is one of the government's efforts to develop a recodification system of the national criminal justice which aims to replace the old Criminal Code as a legal product of the Dutch East Indies colonial era.

“This recodification effort is aimed at solving problems arising due to the unclear implementation of Wetboek van Strafrecht voor Nederlandsch Indie (the Dutch criminal code),” Yasonna said.

Law and Human Rights Deputy Minister Prof. Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej also said that the Criminal Code Revision (RKUHP) is necessary and an urgent matter to be ratified immediately. “Because for almost 76 years, we have lived using an uncertain criminal code,” he said.

Read: DPR Claims RUU PKS Delayed as it Awaits RUU KUHP

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