Insult is the infringement of another human's honor by whatsoever means of expression,de Pablo Serrano, Alejandro (2014), Los delitos contra el honor en el derecho penal español y en el derecho comparado, Vallodid: Vallodid University, p. 349Mijatović, Dunja (2017), Defamation and Insult Laws in the OSCE Region, Organization for Cooperation and Security Europe, p. 9 in particular an offensive statement or gesture communicated, and is a crime in some countries.Mijatović, Dunja (2017), Defamation and Insult Laws in the OSCE Region, Organization for Cooperation and Security Europe, p. 7Clooney, Amal; Webb, Philippa (2018), "The Right to Insult in International Law" in Columbia Human Rights Law Review, volume 48, number 2, p. 2Trends in Media Freedom (2018), p. 38, UNESCO In a few countries seen as the same, in most the distinction between insult and defamation is that, from a focusing point of view, the former ascribes a value whereas the latter attributes or imputes a fact.Mijatović, Dunja (2017), Defamation and Insult Laws in the OSCE Region, Organization for Cooperation and Security Europe, p. 9

Insult is reserved to countries of civil law but a similar behavior in public can be considered public disorder in common law, especially in that of the United KingdomBritish Public Order Act 1986 (2018), 4A par. 1 a) alt. 1 and former colonies of the British Empire after 1776.Indian Penal Code (2019), 504 The difference is that in civil law there is a personal target and the damaged legal good is their honor but in common law the public is targeted and the damaged legal good is the public order. The unlikeness persists also in public insults of civil law.

Legal elements

Legal good Cross-culturally and widely cited are honor or dignity as legal goods harmed but others named are esteem, consideration or, rather anachronistically, even decor. In the democratic states of East Asia, it is found to be credit or reputation, presumably in the sense or notion of honorability.

Means of expression On the objective side, the means of expression can be a spoken, written or symbolic statement, a gesture, picture, other content like a video or non-violent assault that is regarded as offensive or injurious to honor.

On the subjective side, the commission requires an intent to insult the victim, sometimes called "contemptuous intent". This is only brought into question when the offensive or insulting quality of, for example, a statement has remained sufficiently unclear.

The act of expression has to be communicated to either the victim or a third person. Justification Justifications are frequently the exercise of official duties like statements during trial and the scope of civil rights and liberties, which notably includes freedom of speech e.g. in politics, science, arts or literature or some kinds of activities in those. Very narrowly, the self-defense of honor may function as a justification but reciprocal insults are not considered as self-defenses of honor. Authoritarian or one-party states are not expected to allow for criticism of their governing and politics when it comes to insult.

Prosecution Prosecution nearly always requires a complaint by the victim.

Freeing from punishment In cases of reciprocal insults, the judge can oftentimes free either one or both the accused from punishment. Contrasting with this, in China no such exception is made.

Laws by jurisdiction

Africa

Algeria Insult (Arabic: , , French: ) is punishable by prison up to three months or a fine from 10,000 DZD (ca. $78.50) to 25,000 DZD (ca. $196) or both.Algerian Penal Code (2015), Art. 299 par. 1

Angola Insult () is punishable by prison up to six months or by a fine up to 60 daily units.Angolan Penal Code (2021), Art. 213 par. 1

Benin Public insult () is punishable by a fine from 500,000 XOF (ca. $923) to 2,000,000 XOF (ca. $3,694).Beninese Information and Communication Law (2015)

Burkina Faso Public insult () is punishable by prison up to six months and by a fine from 250,000 XOF (ca. $461) to 1,000,000 XOF (ca. $1,847).Burkinabe Penal Code (2018), Art. 524-6 par. 1

Burundi Public insult () is punishable by prison up to one year, a fine from 10,000 BIF (ca. $5.01) to 100,000 BIF (ca. $50.18) or both.Burundian Penal Code (2017), Art. 265

Cameroon Public insult () is punishable either by prison from five days to three months, a fine from 5,000 XAF (ca. $8.96) to 100,000 XAF (ca. $179) or both.Cameroonian Penal Code (2016), Art. 307 par. 1, 152

Chad Public insult () not through press is punishable by prison up to six months or a fine from 25,000 XAF (ca. $41) to 50,000 XAF (ca. $82.50) or both.Chadian Penal Code (2017), Art. 364 par. 1

Egypt Public insult (, ) is punishable by a fine from 2,000 EGP (ca. $126) to 10,000 EGP (ca. $633).Egyptian Penal Code (2019), Art. 306, 171 If the insult is published in a newspaper or elsewhere, the penalty is a fine from 4,000 EGP (ca. $253) to 20,000 EGP (ca. $1,266).Egyptian Penal Code (2019), Art. 307

Eritrea Insult is punishable by prison up to one month or by a fine from 1 ERN (ca. $0.06) to 1,000 ERN (ca. $66.50).Eritrean Penal Code (2015), Art. 302 par. 2 If the insult is grossly obscene, refers to the profession or is otherwise severe, the penalty is prison up to six months or a fine from 5,001 ERN (ca. $333) to 20,000 ERN (ca. $1,333).Eritrean Penal Code (2015), Art. 302 par. 1 b)-d)

Gabon Public insult () is punishable by prison up to six months, a fine up to 1,000,000 XAF (ca. $1,847) or both.Gabonese Penal Code (2020), Art. 286 par. 2

Guinea Public insult () is punishable by prison up to three months, a fine from 500,000 GNF (ca. $49.19) to 1,000,000 GNF (ca. $98.38) or both.Guinean Penal Code (2016), Art. 366 nr. 2

Libya Insult is punishable by prison up to six months or by a fine up to 25 LYD (ca. $18).Libyan Penal Code (2014), Art. 438 Libyan criminal law may still be applied despite the transitional Government of National Accord and military occupations.

Mauritius Insult () is punishable by a fine up to 50,000 MUR (ca. $1,223).Mauritian Criminal Code (2016), 296 a) Mauritius is one of a few countries with mixed common and civil law that explicitly names the crime of insult, according to the Napoleonic model. If the insult is committed in public, the penalty is a fine up to 100,000 MUR (ca. $2,447).Mauritian Criminal Code (2016), 296 b) For publicly written insult, the penalty is prison up to two years and a fine up to 100,000 MUR.Mauritian Criminal Code (2016), 296 c)

Morocco Public insult (, ) is punishable by a fine from 5,000 MAD (ca. $543) to 50,000 MAD (ca. $5,430).Moroccan Penal Code (2019), Art. 444, Moroccan Press Code (2002), Art. 48 par. 2, Art. 38

Mozambique Insult () is punishable by a fine up to three monthly units.Mozambican Penal Code (2019), Art. 235 If the insult is committed in public or divulged publicly, the penalty is prison up to six months and a fine up to six monthly units.Mozambican Penal Code (2019), Art. 234 For insult by assault in public, the penalty is prison up to one year and a fine up to 12 monthly units.Mozambican Penal Code (2019), Art. 236

Rwanda Public insult (Kinyarwanda: , French: ) is punishable by prison from 15 days to two months, a fine from 100,000 RWF (ca. $100) to 200,000 RWF (ca. $200) or public work up to 15 days.Rwandan Penal Code (2018), Art. 161

Togo Public insult () is punishable by a fine from 100,000 XOF (ca. $183) to 500,000 XOF (ca. $919).Togolese Penal Code (2015), Art. 298 par. 1

Asia

Azerbaijan Public insult () is punishable either by prison up to six months, a fine from 1,000 AZN (ca. $588) to 1,500 AZN (ca. $882), income subtraction from 5% to 20% for up to one year or public work from 60 to 120 days.Azerbaijani Criminal Code (2019), Art. 148, 49 par. 2, 47 par. 2 If the insult is committed with a pseudonymous profile or account in the Internet, the penalty is either prison up to one year, a fine from 1,000 AZN to 2,000 AZN (ca. $1,176), income subtraction from 5% to 20% for up to two years or public work from 90 to 120 days.Azerbaijani Criminal Code (2019), Art. 148-1, 49 par. 2, 47 par. 2

Cambodia Public insult (ប្រមាថជាសាធារណៈ) is punishable by a fine ranging from KHR 100,000 (ca. USD 25) to KHR 10,000,000 (ca. USD 2,500). Insulting a public official, or a holder of public office acting in discharge of their official functions, is punishable by imprisonment from one day to six days, and a fine from KHR 1,000 (ca. USD 0.25) to KHR 100,000. Insulting Buddhist monks, nuns and laymen, in the exercise or the occasion of the exercise of their functions is punishable by imprisonment from one day to six days and a fine from KHR 1,000 to KHR 100,000.

Furthermore, Cambodia amended its Criminal Code in 2018 to include lèse-majesté provisions, according to which, insulting the King is punishable by imprisonment from one to five years, and a fine of KHR 2,000,000 (ca. USD 500) to KHR 10,000,000. In addition to this, juridical persons may be subject to fines ranging from KHR 10,000,000 to KHR 50,000,000 (ca. USD 12,500), as well as other sanctions.

China Serious public insult (, ) by assault or other means is punishable by prison up to three years, intermediary detention up to six months or public surveillance up to two years.Chinese Criminal Code (2017), Art. 246 alt. 1, 38 If the insult by assault is too serious, it may be subsidiary to violent crimes instead. China has got the most conditions for criminal insult. In Macau, insult (Chinese: , , Portuguese: ) is punishable by prison up to three months or by a fine up to 120 daily units.Macau Penal Code (2017), Art. 175

Iran Satirization is punishable by prison up to six months.Iranian Criminal Sharia (2013), Art. 700

Japan

Public insult (, ) is punishable by prison up to one year or by a fine from ¥300,000.侮辱罪の法定刑の引上げについて 法務省、2022年7月7日閲覧.

Kazakhstan Insult (, ) is punishable by a fine of up to 100 monthly calculation indices.Kazakh Criminal Code (2018), Art. 131 par. 1 If the insult is committed in public, by mass media or telecommunication networks, the penalty is a fine of up to 200 monthly calculation indices.Kazakh Criminal Code (2018), Art. 131 par. 2

Laos Serious insult (, ) is punishable by prison up to one year or income subtraction from 5% to 20% for up to one year and either way a fine from 1,000,000 LAK (ca. $105) to 5,000,000 LAK (ca. $528).Laotian Penal Code (2017), Art. 206, 47

Nepal Scolding (, ) is punishable by prison up to one year, a fine up to 10,000 NPR (ca. $84) or both.Nepalese Criminal Code (2019), Art. 305

Oman Insult is punishable by prison up to three months, a fine from 100 OMR (ca. $259) to 300 OMR (ca. $777) or both.Omani Penal Code (2018), Art. 328 If the insult is committed in public, the penalty is prison up to six months, a fine from 200 OMR to 500 OMR (ca. $1,295) or both.Omani Penal Code (2018), Art. 327

Qatar Insult (, ) is punishable by prison up to three months or by a fine up to 1,000 QAR (ca. $272).Qatari Penal Code (2020), Art. 330 If the insult is committed in public, the penalty is prison up to one year or a fine up to 5,000 QAR (ca. $1,362).Qatari Penal Code (2020), Art. 329

South Korea Public insult (, ) is punishable by prison up to one year or by a fine up to ₩2 million (ca. $1,600).South Korean Criminal Code (2018), Art. 311

Taiwan Public insult (, ) is punishable by prison up to two months or by a fine up to 9,000 TWD (ca. $297).Taiwanese Criminal Code (2020), Art. 309 par. 1 If the insult is committed by assault, the penalty is prison up to one year or a fine up to 15,000 TWD (ca. $495).Taiwanese Criminal Code (2020), Art. 309 par. 2

Turkey Insult () is punishable by prison up to two years or by fine.Turkish Penal Code (2020), Art. 125 par. 1 If the insult is committed in public, the penalty is prison up to 2.33 years or a fine increased by up to a sixth.Turkish Penal Code (2020), Art. 125 par. 4

Uzbekistan