Caning in Indonesia
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Caning refers to the use of corporal punishment involving strokes with a rattan, whip or similar equipment. Historically, caning was used as a judicial and disciplinary punishment during the Dutch East Indies period. In contemporary Indonesia, caning is not used as legal punishment under national criminal law, but remains a legal punishment under Islamic criminal law in the autonomous province of Aceh.[1] Outside Aceh, caning survives only in informal or domestic contexts and is not recognized as a lawful criminal sanction.
Corporal punishment using a rattan or bamboo stick was widely practiced during the colonial period in the Dutch East Indies. Known as rotanstraf, caning was employed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and later the Dutch colonial state as a means of discipline and punishment. It functioned both as a criminal penalty and as an administrative tool to enforce labour disciplinel.[2][3]
The formal judicial use of caning was abolished in 1866. Colonial records and later scholarship note that the abolition of rotanstraf coincided with changes in colonial labour regimes, including a decline in corvée labour and a growing reliance on short-term convict labour. As caning disappeared as a formal punishment, other forms of administrative sanctions gained prominence within the colonial penal system. Despite its abolition as a legal sanction, corporal punishment continued to shape disciplinary practices in colonial institutions well into the late nineteenth century.[4]
Judicial caning
National criminal law
Under Indonesian Penal Code, caning is not a recognized criminal punishment.[5] Acts of physical violence committed as punishment may instead constitute criminal offenses under general assault provisions or domestic violence.
Sharia caning in Aceh
Caning is legally practiced in Aceh under provincial qanun regulations enacted pursuant to Aceh's special autonomy status. Islamic criminal law in Aceh allows courts to sentence offenders to caning for specific moral and religious offenses.[6]
Offenses punishable by caning in Aceh include adultery, gambling, alcohol consumption, khilwa (close proximity between unmarried persons), and same-sex sexual relations. Caning sentences are imposed by sharia courts and are carried out publicly, usually outside mosques or other designated venues. The punishment is intended to serve as both a deterrent and a form of public shaming.[7][1]
Although caning in Aceh is regulated by local law, it has been widely criticized by human rights organizations for violating international human rights standards.[8]