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.
+ List of countries' flag desecration permissibility and penaltiesCountry Legality Penalty rowspan="3" 5–10 years imprisonment up to 1 year imprisonment up to 2 years community service or up to 1 year imprisonment rowspan="2" up to 6 months imprisonment or a fine up to 1 year imprisonment rowspan="2" up to 1 month imprisonment; up to fine up to 2 years imprisonment and fine up to €1,600 (for burning the flag of Bulgaria or the EU) rowspan="4" up to 1 year imprisonment up to 3 years imprisonment up to 1 year imprisonment fine up to 30,000 CZKKingdom of Denmark (only the national flag of Denmark) desecration of the Danish flag legal; a fine or up to 2 years imprisonment for desecrating a foreign (non-Danish) flag, but law unused since 1936 unknown rowspan="12" up to 3 months imprisonment; from 5 to 20 minimum wages fine fine of up to 30,000 Egyptian pounds up to 1 years imprisonment; fine up to 3 years imprisonment; up to fine fine of unspecified amount in legal code up to 6 months imprisonment; up to fine up to 3 years imprisonmentup to 3 years imprisonment; up to fine up to 1 year imprisonment up to 4 months imprisonmentup to fine up to 10 years imprisonment; up to fine (only the national flag of Islamic Republic of Iran) up to 2 years imprisonment for national flag. desecrating some foreign countries flags (such as United States and Israel) is legal. rowspan="2" up to 3 years imprisonment up to 2 years imprisonment; €1,000–€10,000 fine up to 2 years imprisonment or a fine of up to ¥200,000 rowspan="6" up to 2 years imprisonment or house arrest, or 900 hours community service; up to 3,000 MCI fine 3–6 months imprisonment or up to 1 year house arrest; 50–100 monthly minimum wages fine up to 2 years imprisonment; variable fine depending on the criminal charges 6 months to 2 years imprisonment 6 months to 3 years imprisonment (extended to 1 to 5 years if committed publicly), and/or a fine of to Kingdom of the Netherlands up to 2 months imprisonment; fine up to 2 months imprisonment; fine. Both doubled for a repeat offence within one year rowspan="3" fine A fine of and in the case of a continuing offence to a fine of for every day or part of a day during which the offence is continued after the day on which such person is first convicted. unknown legal since 2008 rowspan="4" varies up to 1 year imprisonment; up to fine up to 1 year imprisonment; variable fine up to 1 year imprisonment and up to €60,000 fine for foreign flags; up to 2 years imprisonment and up to €120,000 fine for the national flag. rowspan="1" rowspan="1" rowspan="5" up to 4 years imprisonment up to 6 months imprisonment up to 1 year imprisonment; up to fine up to 6 months imprisonment; up to fine fine or up to 1 year imprisonment legal since 1994 rowspan="3" up to 10 years imprisonment; up to fine €420–€144,000 fine up to 6 months imprisonment legal since 1971 (Private only) rowspan="5" up to 1 year imprisonment; up to fine up to 6 years imprisonment; fine up to 3 years imprisonment up to 1 year imprisonment 10 years to 25 years imprisonment; fine of at least rowspan = "2" rowspan="2" up to 360 hours community service or 3 years penal labour; up to 25 BCU fine
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 (Código Penal) 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 (as well as to the coat of arms and the national anthem) 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 (Qld Police),"The objectionable feature of the conduct had very little to do with its political significance. It related to the lighting of a large piece of synthetic material to which petrol had been added in close proximity to larger numbers of people including young children. The circumstances were such as to arouse the apprehension of parents for the safety of their children." 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 (Protecting Australian Flags) Bill 2016, which was introduced by National Party MP George Christensen but lapsed in April 2016.Flags Amendment (Protecting Australian Flags) Bill 2016.
Historical occurrences During the 2005 Cronulla riots, a Lebanese-Australian youth, whose name has been kept secret, climbed a Returned and Services League (RSL) 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 (2008) celebrations in Launceston's City Park to the cheers of about 100 people, who were rallying against what they call "Invasion Day"."PM called on to outlaw flag-burning". ABC News.
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."Tent Embassy protesters march on Parliament". ABC News
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 (for example, when the national anthem is being played), 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.