Billionaire Branson urges business to back LGBT+ rights

LONDON - British billionaire Richard Branson urged fellow business leaders on Thursday to use their clout and put pressure on countries such as Brunei that persecute citizens for their sexuality.

Brunei's decision to impose the death penalty for gay sex had spurred the call for action, Branson wrote in a blog posted on Virgin.com. He was joined by 20 other top executives, who put their names to a wider initiative in support of LGBT+ rights.

"Why take action now? The answer is simple. I feel that every opportunity to stand up for what we believe in is a good opportunity to shift the conversation on a global scale," said Branson, who made his fortune from a conglomerate of enterprises bearing the Virgin name.

John Fallon, chief executive of education group Pearson, and Paul Polman, former chief executive of consumer goods company Unilever, were among 21 signatories of an initiative supported by Open For Business, a coalition of global firms promoting LGBT+ inclusion.

"It is time for all of us, as business leaders and as human beings, to stand up to ensure that people are free from the fear of abuse for who they love," the 21 signatories wrote.

"This is our responsibility to our employees, to our customers and to communities all over the world."

The initiative calls for businesses to create inclusive workplaces, actively support criminalized LGBT+ communities, and engage with repressive regimes on their policies.

More than 70 countries worldwide, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, enforce anti-LGBT+ laws.

Brunei, a small Southeast Asian country of about 400,000 people, sparked outcry last month when it rolled out laws penalizing sodomy, adultery and rape with the death penalty.

Celebrities, from actor George Clooney to singer Elton John, have galvanized support, with protesters boycotting the Dorchester Collection of hotels, owned by the Brunei Investment Agency.

A growing list of banks, including Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Citi and Nomura, have banned staff from using the hotels.

STA Travel and London's transport network have also begun to cut ties with businesses owned by the sultanate.

In a letter to the United Nations, Brunei has defended the imposition of strict sharia laws, which it began introducing in 2014, as more for "prevention than to punish."

Matt Cameron, managing director of investment industry organization LGBT Great, called for a boycott of countries that enacted anti-gay and anti-transgender laws.

"The financial services sector is a massive part of the global economy and carries a lot of clout," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"I do think there's a responsibility and an accountability for the industry to step up and use its force."

However, Daniel Winterfeldt, a partner in law firm Reed Smith's global capital markets practice, stressed the value of talking with governments, whatever their views.

"Engagement is incredibly important. If you build up a barrier, things can actually get worse," Winterfeldt said.

"When (business leaders) attend high-level meetings with governments, it is important that on their lists of concerns are equality issues." 

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Brunei defends gay sex death penalty as more for ‘prevention than to punish’

LONDON—Brunei said new laws imposing the death penalty for gay sex and adultery were designed more for "prevention than to punish" in response to the United Nations' condemnation of the measures.

The United Nations said the Muslim-majority former British protectorate violated human rights on April 3 by implementing Islamic laws which punish sodomy, adultery and rape with the death penalty, including by stoning, and theft with amputation.

But Erywan Yusof, Brunei's second minister of foreign affairs, defended the new laws in a letter to the United Nations, saying the move was focused more on "prevention than punishment".

"Its aim is to educate, deter, rehabilitate and nurture rather than to punish," Yusof wrote to the United Nations.

In the letter Yusof said the offenses would not apply to non-Muslims in Brunei, which has has been at the center of a media storm since it announced the rollout of more Sharia laws in March.

Brunei, a small Southeast Asian country of about 400,000 people, has consistently defended its right to implement the laws, elements of which were first adopted in 2014 and which have been rolled out in phases since then.

Its U.N. letter said the "criminalization of adultery and sodomy is to safeguard the sanctity of family lineage and marriage of individual Muslims particularly women".

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on April 3, through a spokesman, said "human rights are to be upheld in relation to every person everywhere without any kind of discrimination".

"The legislation approved is in clear violation with the principles expressed," his spokesman said.

The U.N. has noted that the right to be free from discrimination was enshrined in article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said he had met with Yusof who assured him that prosecutions for gay sex were "unlikely" but this was not satisfactory. "(Yusof's) suggestion that Sharia prosecutions are in practice unlikely is not acceptable: everyone should be free to be who they are and love who they want," Hunt said on Twitter.

Celebrities, from actor George Clooney and singer Elton John, have galvanized support against the new laws, with protesters boycotting the Dorchester Collection range of hotels, owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, across the world.

Over the past week, travel agents, London's transport network and finance houses were among a rising number of companies to cut ties with businesses owned by Brunei. (Reporting by Hugo Greenhalgh @hugo_greenhalgh; Editing by Belinda Goldsmith Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit https://news.trust.org)

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Rising number of businesses cut ties with Brunei over gay sex death penalty

LONDON - Travel agents, London's transport network, and finance houses were among a rising number of companies on Friday to cut ties with businesses owned by Brunei to protest over the Sultanate's introduction of the death penalty for gay sex and adultery.

The small Muslim-majority former British protectorate on April 3 rolled out further Islamic Sharia laws, which punish sodomy, adultery, and rape with death, including by stoning, and theft with amputation, sparking a global outcry.

The move prompted a corporate backlash after actor George Clooney and singer Elton John called for a boycott of hotels owned by the Southeast Asian country, including the Dorchester in London and the Beverley Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

STA Travel, a global travel agency owned by privately-held Swiss conglomerate Diethelm Keller Group, said it would no longer sell flights on national carrier Royal Brunei Airlines.

"We've taken this stance to add our voice to the calls on Brunei to reverse this change in the law and in support of LGBTQI people everywhere," the company said in a statement.

Virgin Australia Airlines, the second biggest airline in Australia after Qantas, ended an agreement that offered discounted tickets on Royal Brunei Airlines for staff.

Royal Brunei did not respond to requests for comment.

Transport For London (TfL), which is responsible for London's transport system, said it was removing adverts promoting Brunei as a tourism destination from the city's public transport network due to "great public sensitivity."

Deutsche Bank banned its staff from staying in the 9 luxury hotels of the Dorchester Collection, which is owned by Brunei's state-owned Brunei Investment Agency (BIA).

BIA did not respond to a request for comment. The UK-based Sovereign Wealth Center estimates the BIA has US$39 billion of assets under management.

The Dorchester Collection made a public appeal, saying its values were "far removed from the politics of ownership".

"We understand people's anger and frustration but this is a political and religious issue that we don't believe should be played out in our hotels and amongst our 3,630 employees," the Dorchester Collection said in a statement on its website.

But this did not prevent numerous organizations moving their events elsewhere.

British estate agent Knight Frank, property industry networking group Movers and Shakers, which has about 300 corporate members, and property investment company Landsec said they would not use Dorchester Collection hotels.

As well as owning the hotel group, the BIA holds about 4 percent of London-listed digital tech venture capital firm Draper Esprit PLC which it acquired in 2018.

Draper Esprit's CEO Simon Cook said the company "naturally abhor" the moves in Brunei but added the BIA bought shares on the open market and has no "influence either on our company culture or our investment decisions".

The backlash also spread to universities.

More than 50,000 people signed a petition calling on Oxford University to rescind an honorary degree awarded to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, 72, the world's second-longest reigning monarch and prime minister of the oil-rich country.

The university's information office said they shared the international condemnation of Brunei's new penal code and backed the United Nations' call to stop this entering into force.

"At present, the University has not taken any decision on rescinding the Sultan of Brunei's 1993 Honorary Degree of Civil Law by Diploma," the university said in a statement.

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Elton John joins call for boycott of Brunei-owned hotels

LONDON--British pop legend Elton John has joined actor George Clooney in calling for a boycott of nine Brunei-owned hotels over the sultanate's new death-penalty laws for gay sex and adultery.

The call came as a growing list of politicians and celebrities added their names to those condemning the new laws and supporting a boycott.

"I commend my friend, #GeorgeClooney, for taking a stand against the anti-gay discrimination and bigotry taking place in the nation of #Brunei - a place where gay people are brutalized, or worse - by boycotting the Sultan's hotels," the singer wrote on his Twitter page late Saturday.

The 72-year-old, a veteran gay rights campaigner, said his "heart went out" to staff at the hotels, but that "we must send a message, however we can, that such treatment is unacceptable".

The nine hotels mentioned by Clooney are located in Britain, France, Italy and the United States. They include London's exclusive Dorchester and the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. 

The Dorchester Collection luxury chain issued a statement saying that its code emphasizes "equality, respect and integrity in all areas" and that "we do not tolerate any form of discrimination", CNN reported.

Clooney called for the boycott earlier this week, saying "every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels, we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery".

'BARBARIC' DECISION 

"No one should face the death penalty because of who they love. Brunei's decision is barbaric," Britain's international development minister Penny Mordaunt wrote on Twitter.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark called the new penal code "shocking" and "barbaric".

Amnesty International called on Brunei to "immediately halt its plans to implement these vicious punishments".

In the US, Clooney's call drew supportive declarations from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle and a strong statement from the Trump administration.

"We strongly oppose human rights violations and abuses against LGBTI persons, including violence," the State Department said in a statement.

LGBTI stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex. Intersex people are people born with physical features that are neither wholly male nor female.

US CONDEMNATION 

Former US vice president Joe Biden, who is expected to seek the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination, tweeted on Friday: "Stoning people to death for homosexuality or adultery is appalling and immoral...

"There is no excuse -- not culture, not tradition -- for this kind of hate and inhumanity."

Another Democrat seeking the party's nomination, Senator Kamala Harris of California, joined the chorus. "These human rights abuses cannot be tolerated," she said.

And Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, said on Twitter: "This is wrong. It is barbaric. America should condemn this immoral and inhumane law, and everyone should be united against it."

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis also tweeted in support of her fellow actor's stand. "I stand with George Clooney, a good man doing the right thing, fighting an unjust and barbaric law."

Clooney and his wife, human-rights lawyer Amal Clooney, have been active in humanitarian causes. 

Brunei, an absolute monarchy ruled for 51 years by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, is to implement the new penal code starting Wednesday.

Homosexuality is already illegal in the sultanate, but it will now become a capital offence. The law applies only to Muslims.

Brunei first announced the measures in 2013, but implementation has been delayed, in the face of opposition by rights groups, and as officials worked out the practical details.

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Actor George Clooney calls for boycott of Brunei-owned hotels

WASHINGTON, United States - American actor George Clooney has called for a boycott of nine Brunei-owned hotels over the sultanate's imposition of the death penalty for gay sex and adultery.

"Every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery," Clooney wrote on website Deadline Hollywood.

"I've learned over years of dealing with murderous regimes that you can't shame them. But you can shame the banks, the financiers and the institutions that do business with them and choose to look the other way," he added.

The nine hotels are located in the US, Britain, France and Italy.

Brunei will implement the harsh new penal code -- which also mandates amputation of a hand and foot for theft -- starting next Wednesday.

Homosexuality is already illegal in the tiny sultanate, but it will now become a capital offense. The law only applies to Muslims.

Brunei first announced the measures in 2013, but implementation has been delayed as officials worked out the practical details and in the teeth of opposition by rights groups.

In addition to film-making chops that have netted him two Oscars, Clooney is known for his globe-trotting political activism, especially his tireless campaigning to draw attention to the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

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Sultan of Brunei introduces tough Islamic punishments

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - The Sultan of Brunei on Tuesday introduced tough Islamic punishments including death by stoning for crimes such as adultery, making his oil-rich realm the first East Asian country to do so at the national level.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah -- one of the world's wealthiest men -- said a new Sharia Penal Code in the works for years was officially introduced Tuesday and would "come into force six months hereafter and in phases", sparking sharp criticism from rights groups.

Under the code, which applies only to Muslims, punishments can include stoning to death for adultery, severing of limbs for theft, and flogging for violations ranging from abortion to alcohol consumption.

"By the grace of Allah, with the coming into effect of this legislation, our duty to Allah is therefore being fulfilled," the sultan, 67, said in a speech.

An absolute monarch whose family has tightly controlled the tiny, languid realm of 400,000 people for six centuries, the sultan first called in 1996 for sharia criminal punishments.

"Brunei is showing its feudal characteristics as an 18th-century state rather than an important member of a regional Southeast Asian economic and social consensus in the 21st century," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

He called the legal change "rights-abusing, abhorrent, and absolutely unjustifiable".

Brunei already practices a brand of Islam that is relatively conservative compared to its Muslim neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, banning the sale and public consumption of alcohol and closely restricting other religions.

But sharia has been a rare point of contention in a land where the sultan's word is unquestioned, with many Bruneians quietly grumbling that the concept is out of step with the affluent country's laid-back ethnic Malay society.

The monarch himself has acknowledged concerns over sharia in recent years as the code was being drafted.

Compatible with Malay culture?

But he has repeatedly advocated strengthening the insular nation's Muslim roots in the face of potentially harmful outside influences including the Internet, while guarding against radicalism.

However, Brunei was likely to apply sharia law "very, very softly" in keeping with its peaceful national character, said Gibril Fouad Haddad, a visiting fellow at Brunei's Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies.

"Is it merely symbolic? I don't know," he said.

The government has previously promised to apply an extremely high burden of proof with sharia and said judges would have wide discretion in applying it, comments aimed at easing public fears.

"It seems almost incompatible with Malay culture, which is peace-loving," said Tuah Ibrahim, 57, driver of a boat taxi in the capital Bandar Seri Begawan.

He said sharia can be acceptable if proportionate to the crime, but adds: "I can't imagine our country turning into somewhere like Saudi Arabia."

Neither of East Asia's two other Muslim-majority countries -- Malaysia and Indonesia -- impose sharia criminal punishments, but the Indonesian special region of Aceh does.

Nearly 70 percent of Brunei's people are Muslim Malays while about 15 percent are non-Muslim ethnic Chinese.

Brunei already has a dual system combining civil courts based on British law -- the sultanate was a British protectorate until 1984 -- and sharia-compliant courts handling marital, inheritance, and other low-key issues.

In his speech, the sultan appeared to try to assuage any international concerns, saying the sharia change "does not in any way change our policies ... as a member of the family of nations".

The monarch's wealth -- estimated at $20 billion by Forbes magazine two years ago -- has become legendary amid reports of a vast collection of luxury vehicles and gold-bedecked palaces.

The monarchy was deeply embarrassed by a sensational family feud between Hassanal and his younger brother Jefri Bolkiah over the latter's alleged embezzlement of 15 billion dollars during his tenure as finance minister in the 1990s.

Court battles and exposes revealed salacious details of Jefri's un-Islamic jet-set lifestyle, including allegations of a high-priced harem of Western paramours and a luxury yacht he owned called "Tits".

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