Jakarta: Extra marital sex, homelessness, criticism of the President and spreading communist ideology would all be crimes - and attract jail time - under looming sweeping changes to Indonesia's penal code.

Other mooted changes include making it illegal for couples who aren't married to live together, showing contraception to a minor (for example, displaying condoms in a shop), curbing access to abortion and criminalising criticism of a judge, fake news, bestiality and black magic.

The Indonesian Parliament has been working to update the country's penal code since 1995. Much of the current code dates back to the era of Dutch colonialism, pre-World War II.

The current Parliament will finish sitting in a matter of weeks and a vote on the bill is due to take place on September 24, before the new slate of MPs elected in the April 17 elections take their seats in October.

As the deadline for the vote looms, NGOs and human rights groups are increasingly alarmed by the prospect of the new code passing into law. A broad alliance of NGOs and rights groups including the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, the Indonesia Legal Aid Foundation and Human Rights Watch met with close to 20 foreign diplomats on Monday to discuss the changes.

They want President Joko Widodo to intervene and block passage of the bill if it wins parliamentary support, as appears likely.

Australia, Canadian and European diplomats heard from speakers about the threat the penal code revision poses to freedom of expression and the rights of LGBTQ people, women, HIV-positive people, children. Read more via Sydney Morning Herald