Brunei will no longer bring into effect the death penalty by stoning for those convicted of having gay sex following a global backlash that this law had sparked.

In a televised speech on Sunday, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah announced the extension of a moratorium on capital punishment as well as the approval of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

"Both the common law and the sharia law aim to ensure peace and harmony of the country," he insisted, according to an official translation of his speech.

"We have practised a de facto moratorium on the execution of death penalty for cases under the common law,” he said.

"This will also be applied to cases under the (sharia penal code), which provides a wider scope for remission,” he added.