Flag desecration


Flag desecration is the desecration of a flag, violation of flag protocol, or various acts that intentionally destroy, damage, or mutilate a flag in public. In the case of a national flag, such action is often intended to make a political point against a country or its policies.
Some countries have laws against methods of destruction, such as burning in public, or forbidding particular uses, such as for commercial purposes. Such laws may distinguish between the desecration of the country's own national flag and the desecration of flags of other countries. Some countries have banned the desecration of all flags on their soil.

Background

Actions that may be treated as the desecration of a flag include burning it, urinating or defecating on it, defacing it with slogans, stepping upon it, damaging it with stones; bullets; or any other projectile, cutting or ripping it, improperly flying it, verbally insulting it, dragging it on the ground, or eating it, among other things.
Flag desecration may be undertaken for a variety of reasons. It may be a protest against a country's foreign policy, including one's own, or the nature of the government in power there. It may be a protest against nationalism or a deliberate and symbolic insult to the people of the country represented by the flag. It may also be a protest at the very laws prohibiting the act of desecrating a flag.

Flag desecration laws

In some countries, desecrating a flag is illegal and punishable by a prison sentence or a fine. In countries where it is not, the act may still be prosecuted as disorderly conduct or arson or, if conducted on someone else's property, as theft or vandalism.
CountryLegalityPenalty
AlgeriaNo

By jurisdiction

Algeria

In Algeria, flag desecration is a crime. According to article 160 bis of the Algerian penal code, the intentional and public shredding, distortion, or desecration of the national flag is punishable by five to ten years of imprisonment.
In 2010, an Algerian court convicted 18 people of flag desecration and punished them by up to six years of imprisonment and $10,000 in fines after protests about jobs and housing.

Argentina

The Penal Code on its Article 222 criminalizes the public desecration of the national flag, coat of arms, national anthem, or any provincial symbol, imposing one to four years of imprisonment. In other words, in Argentina, flag desecration is a crime punishable by up to one year of imprisonment.

Armenia

The Armenian criminal code punishes any insult to the flag with community service of up to two years or imprisonment of up to one year.

Australia

Legality

Flag desecration is not, in itself, illegal in Australia. However, flag desecration must be compliant with the law.
In Coleman v Kinbacher & Anor , Coleman was successfully prosecuted for flag burning, not because of its political nature, but because given the size of the flag, the use of petrol as an accelerant, and the fact that it was in an open park area, many members of the public experienced "concern, fright and anger", and in these circumstances flag burning could be considered disorderly conduct.

Attempts to ban flag burning

There have been several attempts to pass bills making flag burning illegal in Australia, none of which have yet been successful. For four consecutive years between 1989 and 1992, National Party MP Michael Cobb introduced bills making it an offence to desecrate, dishonour, burn, mutilate or destroy the Australian national flag. On each occasion, the bill failed. As of May 2016, the most recent bill which attempted to ban flag burning was the Flags Amendment Bill 2016, which was introduced by National Party MP George Christensen but lapsed in April 2016.

Historical occurrences

During the 2005 Cronulla riots, a Lebanese-Australian youth, whose name has been kept secret, climbed a Returned and Services League club building and tore down its flag before setting it on fire. The youth was sentenced to 12 months probation not for flag desecration but for the destruction of property of the RSL. In October of that year the youth accepted an invitation from the RSL to carry the Australian flag along with war veterans in the Anzac Day march the following year. However, the RSL was forced to withdraw this invitation as it received phone calls from people threatening to pelt the youth with missiles on the day. The head of the New South Wales RSL was quoted as saying that "the people who made these threats ought to be bloody ashamed of themselves".
In 2006, Australian contemporary artist Azlan McLennan burnt an Australian flag and displayed it on a billboard outside the Trocadero artspace in Footscray, Victoria. He called the artpiece Proudly UnAustralian.
The socialist youth group Resistance marketed "flag-burning kits"inspired by, and to protest, the censorship of Azlan McLennan's artto university students.
Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre worker Adam Thompson burned the Australian flag on the week of Australia Day celebrations in Launceston's City Park to the cheers of about 100 people, who were rallying against what they call "Invasion Day".
Tent embassy activists burned the Australian flag on 27 January 2012 at the entrance to Canberra's Parliament House as they called for Aboriginal sovereignty over Australia.

Austria

In Austria, sections 248 and 317 of the federal law criminal code state that desecration of national and international symbols in a manner that makes the act known to a broad public is illegal. Section 248 deals specifically with maliciously insulting, disparaging or degrading a flag, emblem or anthem of the republic or one of its federal states ; section 317 does the same for those of foreign states or international organizations. Punishment in both cases is imprisonment for up to six months, or a fine.

Azerbaijan

The Criminal Code of Azerbaijan, Article 324, penalizes desecration of the national flag or state emblem with imprisonment for up to one year.

Belgium

Flag desecration is not illegal in Belgium. Flemish nationalists have burned Belgian flags on at least one occasion.

Brazil

Brazilian law number 5700, chapter V, from 1971, concerns respect and the national flag:
Article 30 states that, when in the flag is being marched or paraded, everyone present must take a respectful attitude, standing in silence. Males must remove any head coverings. Military personnel must salute or present arms according to their corps' internal regulations.
Article 31 states that people are prohibited from:
Article 32 states that flags in a bad condition must be sent to the nearest military unit for incineration on Flag Day according to ceremonial procedures.
Article 33 states that, except at diplomatic missions such as embassies and consulates, no foreign flag may be flown without a Brazilian flag of the same size in a prominent position alongside it.
Chapter VI of the law states, in article 35, that the act of a civilian breaking this law is considered a misdemeanor, punished with a fine of one to four times the highest reference value active in the country, doubled in repeated infringement cases. In the Brazilian Armed Forces' Military Penal Code, article 161, a soldier, airman or seaman who disrespects any national symbol is punished with one to two years' detention; officers may be declared unsuitable for their rank. In other words, the desecration of a flag is illegal in Brazil and punishable by one month of imprisonment and a fine of up to ten reais.

Bulgaria

The desecration of any national symbol, including the national flag, is a crime in Bulgaria, which is punishable by up to two years of imprisonment and a fine of up to €1,600.

Canada

Legality

Flag desecration is not, in itself, a crime in Canada. Acts of this nature are forms of expression protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In 1990, during heated political times around the Meech Lake Accord, the flag of Quebec was desecrated by protestors in Brockville, Ontario opposed to Quebec's language laws after the Canadian flag had been burnt in protests in Quebec. Televised images of individuals stepping on the Quebec flag were played in Quebec and contributed to the deterioration in relations between Quebec and English Canada. The incident, seen as a metaphor of Canada's perceived rejection of Quebec was invoked by Quebec nationalists during the run-up to the 1995 referendum on Quebec independence and is still remembered today.
In 1999, members of the Westboro Baptist Church from the United States staged a burning of the Canadian Flag outside of the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. This was to protest legalization of same-sex marriage which was being adjudicated by the Canadian court.

Chile

The Ley de Seguridad Interior del Estado, articles 6 and 7, defines as a crime the public desecration of the national flag, coat of arms, the name of the country or the national anthem, and imposes a period of imprisonment, relegation or estrangement for a period of up to one year.

China

Flag desecration is a crime in China. Article 299 of the penal code provides for up to three years of imprisonment criminal detention, public surveillance, or deprivation of political rights for "whoever desecrates the National Flag or the National Emblem of the People's Republic of China by intentionally burning, mutilating, scrawling on, defiling or trampling upon it in a public place".

Hong Kong

Chinese laws concerning flag desecration were incorporated into Hong Kong law as the National Flag and National Emblem Ordinance in 1997 as required by Annex III of the territory's constitution. The Regional Flag and Regional Emblem Ordinance is the equivalent statute in respect of the Hong Kong flag. Both ordinances ban desecration of the Chinese flag and Hong Kong flag, respectively, through methods including "burning, mutilating, scrawling on, defiling or trampling".
In 1999, two individuals were convicted for desecration of the Regional Flag of Hong Kong and the Chinese flag. They were found guilty by a magistrate, had the conviction overturned in the High Court but the convictions were restored by the Court of Final Appeal. They were bound over to keep the peace on their own recognisance of $2,000 for 12 months for each of the two charges. In the judgment, Chief Justice Andrew Li said although the Basic Law of Hong Kong guarantees freedom of speech, flag desecration is not legal because there are other protest methods.
Social activist Koo Sze-yiu has been convicted several times of flag desecration. He was sentenced to a nine-month prison term in 2013 for the offence. However, the sentence was reduced to four months and two weeks after an appeal. In March 2016, he was sentenced to a six-week prison term for burning the regional flag in Wanchai on HKSAR Establishment Day in 2015. Koo responded that "he is happy to be punished as being jailed is part of the life of an activist, and he would continue to protest against the Beijing and Hong Kong governments and fight for democracy." In January 2021, Koo was again jailed, this time for four months, for displaying an inverted Chinese flag with slogans written on it in July 2020.
In October 2016, some miniature Chinese and Hong Kong flags that had been placed by pro-Beijing legislators in the Legislative Council chamber were flipped upside down by lawmaker Cheng Chung-tai, who regarded them as "cheap patriotic acts". In April 2017 he was charged with flag desecration. He alleged that the arrest was part of a "general cleansing" of dissenting voices ahead of Carrie Lam's inauguration as new chief executive. On 29 September 2017, the Eastern Magistrates' Court found Cheng guilty and fined him $5,000.
In December 2019, a 13-year-old girl was sentenced to 12 months' probation for flag desecration during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. She received a curfew as well as a criminal record; the act was described as "rash" by magistrate Kelly Shui. Government intervention was on the basis of " challenging the national sovereignty".