FRESNO, CALIFORNIA– Throughout the years there have been numerous laws that countries have passed that have faced opposition, but none as much as the next ten laws on this list.
Here are the top ten world’s most controversial laws by country. Although these countries have other controversial laws both active and abandoned, these next ones were voted as the biggest offenders according to the amount of news coverage they received, their level of protests and riots, and how long they were in effect.
10. North Korea: North Korea Makes St. Patrick’s Day A National Holiday
In retaliation to the Twitter fued with Donald Trump over who has the nicest hair, Kim Jong-Un decided to make St. Patrick’s Day a national North Korean holiday. Millions of Irish Americans were left dazed and confused as to whether they should celebrate the holiday in America or North Korea.
9. Japan: Japan To Require Foreign Workers Arriving On New Visas To Do Cosplay
In an effort to boost their waning weirdness, Japan’s Prime Minister decided to pass a law that forced all incoming foreigners seeking work to dress up in cosplay. Even though the law is considered extremely controversial around the rest of the world, Japan’s citizens surprisingly find this law to be one of their favorites.
8. Brazil: Brazil: Mardi Gras Police Being Heralded As Future Of Law Enforcement
Back in 2017, Brazil passed a very obscure law which required all of its police officers to show up at work drunk while wearing outlandish costumes. Even though the law was initially widely accepted throughout Brazil, eventually everyone came to hate it after they all sobered up and realized just how ridiculous it turned out to be. Especially when crime shot up by 969%.
7. Britain: Starting February 30, 2017 Anyone Driving In Britain Must Drive In Reverse
Britain has had many controversial laws come and go, but none of them were more so than than the one where all citizens were forced to drive backwards at all times. The brainchild of Nigel Huxley, this law was met with instant backlash. The law was later abandoned after Huxley accidentally ran over Prince William’s foot while going backwards.
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6. Poland: Poland Bans Scissors Due To One Too Many Paper Cuts
Polish citizens were outraged when politicians officially banned all scissors in the country. Thousands of people took to the streets in protest of the strange law. Officials had good intentions when they first implemented the law, but after people started using axes and saws to cut things they decided that it was doing more harm than good.
5. Canada: Canada Outlaws Left Turns On All Roads
As a way to prevent unnecessary left turn-related squirrel deaths, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passed a squirrel-friendly law that forbid all vehicles from making left turns. Even though the law was a success and squirrel lives were spared, the sudden influx of thousands of extra squirrels running around the streets forced Trudeau to abandon the law and killing squirrels was once again acceptable.
4. Thailand: Airlines Hiring Prostitutes As Stewardesses
This didn’t actually start out as a law, but due to the exponential increase in revenue into the country, Thai officials decided to force all airlines coming into the country to use only prostitutes as stewardesses. Numerous women’s rights groups protested this disturbing practice, but this new law brought the country way too much extra money from American and British men to abandon.
3. United States: United States Votes To Change National Bird To Seagull
Picking a national bird is a very important decision and US officials didn’t take this matter lightly. With almost unanimous support from American citizens, the seagull replaced the bald eagle as the country’s bird. But due to budget cuts, Congress was forced to keep the bald eagle’s picture on all government documents even though the boisterous seagull is still the unofficial country bird.
2. Germany: Germany Implements Mandatory Adopt-A-Refugee Day For All Citizens
During the 2017 European migrant crisis, Angela Merkel had the brilliant idea of forcing German citizens to adopt refugees as a way to bring the two diverse groups together. But after only two weeks, the law was officially abandoned after Merkel’s adopted refugee kicked her out of her own house and she was forced to draft up a new anti-refugee adoption law.
1. Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia Sentences Camel To 100 Years In Prison For Not Covering Its Hump In Public
The number one most controversial law in the world came as a surprise to everyone other than Saudi officials. Both animal rights and women’s rights groups around the world protested the law that forced female camels to cover their humps in public or face severe consequences, such as life sentences and public executions.
Even though the barbaric hump-covering law still stands today, everyone around the world had already forgotten about it within three weeks due to news that American Idol was returning for a new season.
