Oxford University to review Sultan of Brunei’s honorary degree amid fury at anti-LGBT+ law

Institution shares ‘international revulsion’ at new laws, spokesperson says

Oxford University has said it will review the Sultan of Brunei’s honorary degree as an international backlash grows against the country’s anti-LGBT+ laws.

A spokesperson for the university said the institution shared the “international revulsion” that greeted harsh new sharia laws which came into effect this week in the small southeast Asian nation.

One such law punishes gay sex with death by stoning. Whipping of LGBT+ people will also be permitted.

Homosexuality was already illegal and carried a long jail sentence in Brunei.

The university spokesperson said the decision to confer the honorary degree of civil law by diploma to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in 1993 would be reconsidered.

Earlier in the week the institution had said it would not strip the sultan of the honour.

The first announcement had caused outrage within its student body.

“All honorary degrees should reflect the ethos of the university,” the student union said in a statement published earlier this week.

“We want to create a safe and inclusive society for all and the people who receive this type of honour should be held to a high standard.

“If they fail to meet that, as in this case, they should be stripped of their honour.”

The university’s latest announcement comes after a petition calling on it to reconsider gathered more than 56,000 signatures.

George Clooney, Ellen DeGeneres and other celebrities have also condemned Brunei for its treatment of the LBGT+ community.

Clooney and DeGeneres have called for a boycott of luxury hotels owned by the sultan, including the Dorchester and 45 Park Lane in London.

Dozens of protesters raised the rainbow flag of the LGBT+ rights movement on Saturday outside the Dorchester.

Protesters, led by human rights activist Peter Tatchell, carried placards and banners calling for homophobia to be stamped out.

Despite the international outrage, a spokesperson for Oxford University stressed that no one had the right to “summarily” rescind the sultan’s degree.

“We also believe in due process. Just as nobody has a right to confer an honorary degree, nobody has a right summarily to rescind it,” the spokesperson said.

“The decision to confer this degree 26 years ago was recommended by a committee and approved by council and by congregation at the time.

“We will reconsider this decision through our established process in light of the information now available, as other British universities are doing.”

King’s College London and the University of Aberdeen are among other institutions which have been quick to review honorary degrees given to the sultan.

Additional reporting by agencies