The kingdom of Brunei is gearing up to pass a penal code reform under which gays would be stoned to death, leading the United Nations to protest against the violation of human rights.

Indulging in homosexual sex isn't the only offense that could lead to death by a hail of rocks, under the proposed Sharia legislation. Rape would also be punished by stoning, as would sodomy, insulting the Koran, declaring oneself to be a prophet – which is blasphemy, and also, while about it, robbery and murder. And a few more.

Brunei, aa Muslim nation on the north coast of Borneo whose full name is officially "Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace," hasn't actually executed anybody since 1957 but perhaps the small nation's rulers feel it's high time. The new code, if approved, comes into effect next week, on April 22.

The United Nations said it urged Brunei to hold up and revisit its revised penal code. Applying the death penalty for such a broad range of offenses "contravenes international law, said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Under international law, stoning people to death is torture, he added.

In fact same-sex intercourse is already illegal in Brunei, but the worst the authorities could do is jail offenders for ten years. That seems about to change.

More than 70 countries have criminalized gay sex, many of them in Africa and many of them Muslim, including Pakistan and the Gulf nations. That doesn't mean gays are safe in all other places: Trinidad & Tobago is just one example from the Americas that also bans same-sex relations.