Brunei’s Second Minister of Foreign Affairs addressed this letter to the Special Procedures Branch of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on April 8, 2019, responding to an April 1, 2019 letter asking that the Syariah Penal Code Order of 2013 be repealed. The letter starts by affirming Brunei’s commitment to international human rights law. It then argues that the Code is acceptable given the local context: Brunei is a small country, Islam has been the official religion for centuries, and religious values underly the Brunein identity, and Brunei has the sovereignty to enforce laws reflecting its cultural and religious values. It also states that the Syariah criminal law system is focused more on prevention than punishment, that the Code does not criminalize any sexual orientations or same-sex relations, and that the most severe punishments require a standard that is so high that it would be extremely difficult to satisfy.
Note: Authors' name is written differently on the cover letter and on the country's official site. In the long form field, his name is written as on the official site.