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ore than 530 people have been caned under Aceh’s Islamic law since its enactment on Oct. 23, 2015, including dozens of men and women who were punished for victimless crimes like kissing, fornication and sodomy.

The implementation of corporal punishment in the province, which has been granted autonomy to devise its own criminal law, has been met with condemnation from civil society groups who argue that such punishment is too harsh for petty crimes.

In a press conference at the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (LBHI) office in Jakarta, human rights activists called on the Acehnese government and the central government to review the province’s Islamic criminal code qanun jinayat (bylaw).

The bylaw was enacted two years ago as a result of the 2005 peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki that Aceh would be allowed to have its own law.

The Jakarta-based Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) recorded that at least 339 people were punished by caning in 2016 for various offenses, mostly related to morality.

Maisir (gambling) was the highest offense of all, with 261 people — 259 men and two women — being caned, followed by ikhtilat with 21 people, 10 men and 11 women. Meanwhile, 20 people — 11 men and nine women — were caned for khalwat (being in an enclosed area with a person of the opposite sex outside the bonds of marriage).

From January to September this year, 188 people were caned, according to the ICJR, which actively monitored the implementation of corporal punishment.

Gambling remains the most common offense with 109 people convicted of the crime, followed by kissing with 47 people and sex outside of marriage with 13 people.

The number of lashes a person receives varies, depending on the offense. For example, a person found guilty of gambling is punishable to anywhere between 12 and 45 lashes, depending on the amount of the wager.

Sex outside of marriage, considered a major crime, is punishable to 100 strokes of the cane.

Caning has been widely criticized, not just because it inflicts pain and is a punishment that has long been abandoned by most countries in the world, but also because it is implemented in public, potentially bringing much more psychological harm to the offender.

“It is not in line with the spirit of restorative justice,” Totok Yulianto, director of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), said on Sunday. Restorative justice is a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders.

Qanun jinayat is applicable not only to the Acehnese but also to people visiting the province, including non-Muslims.

In April 2016, the ICJR recorded a case in which a non-Muslim woman was given 28 strokes of the cane for selling alcoholic beverages. She was the first non-Muslim to be caned under the bylaw.

In fact, since caning is performed in public, with the hope that it will serve as a deterrent to potential offenders, women are considered the most vulnerable to such punishment as they will suffer both physically and psychologically.

In a report released in October 2016, the ICJR found most women convicts fainted when caned.

Nisa Yura, program coordinator of Women’s Solidarity (SP), said a woman convict normally received many more jeers than if it is a man. “This can leave a deep stigma on a woman, making it hard for her to return to her community,” Nisa said. “Even children are allowed to watch.

“This suggests that caning as a punishment, which was once considered to be a social sanction to shame and presumed to have a deterrent effect, has now shifted to not only to humiliation but also to psychological and physical harm, which is clearly prohibited under the national law and the Human Rights Law,” the ICJR said in its report.

A much deeper concern about the qanun jinayat is that the bylaw is discriminative toward women, said Nisa. For example, Article 51, point 1 of the 2014 qanun jinayat stipulates that a woman who falls victim to rape should file a report by bringing preliminary evidence. Failing to do so may result in the victim being charged with qadsaf (accusing someone of fornication). Article 57 of the bylaw stipulates that a qadsaf offender could receive up to 80 lashes.

Nisa said this was the reason many victims of rape did not file police reports. “In the case of rape, it is hard to provide evidence or bring witnesses,” she said.