Senegal: fear drives LGBTQ+ people into hiding as hundreds are arrested.
More than 300 people have been detained for "acts against nature" in Senegal since February, after the country toughened its law criminalising homosexuality, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports. In a report published on 12 October, the organisation describes mass arrests, forced HIV testing and barriers to legal representation as part of an escalating wave of repression against LGBT people.
The turning point came on 11 March, when parliament amended article 319 of the penal code by 135 votes to 0, with three abstentions. The maximum prison term for consensual same-sex conduct doubled to 10 years. Promoting homosexuality, or supporting and financing LGBT people and organisations, is now punishable by up to seven years in prison. HRW could not independently verify the total number of arrests, but the HIV Justice Network now counts more than 355 since February. The people targeted are men and women in cities across the country, including Dakar, Thiès and Ziguinchor. Security officials say they act on information extracted from seized phones, accusations by third parties or raids on private premises.
Same-sex conduct has been illegal in Senegal since the 1965 penal code (law no. 65-60). Before the March reform, article 319 carried one to five years in prison, and two earlier parliamentary attempts to toughen penalties had failed. Hostility has nonetheless grown. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who went on to win, and former prime minister Ousmane Sonko promised to strengthen the laws, presenting the issue as a national priority. People interviewed by HRW said the March amendments triggered a new round of attacks.
The consequences go far beyond detention. According to HRW, authorities tested most detainees for HIV without informed consent and used positive results to add charges or prolong detention. At least 82 people were charged with "voluntary HIV transmission", although a court dismissed these charges in August. A doctor in Dakar told HRW that one-third of patients no longer come in for HIV treatment. Lawyers fear being accused of "promotion" if they defend detainees and police appear to have leaked confidential details, including HIV status, to the media, exposing people to stigma, family rejection and violence. Many LGBTQ+ people have gone into hiding, relocated or left the country.
In February, the Public Health Ministry and the National Council for the Fight Against AIDS, the government body coordinating the HIV response, issued joint statements stressing the need to keep medical and judicial records separate. Internationally, UNAIDS said in March that the confidentiality of medical information is a non-negotiable foundation of a functioning health system. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has urged states to protect people from violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The UN Human Rights Committee has repeatedly held that criminalising consensual same-sex conduct violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Senegal is a party.
Furthermore, Senegal will host the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games from 31 October to 13 November, the first Olympic event in Africa, and the Olympic Charter prohibits discrimination. HRW calls on President Faye to release everyone arbitrarily detained under article 319 and to refer the law to the Constitutional Council. It also asks the National Assembly to repeal the article entirely. So far, however, Senegalese authorities have not replied to the letter HRW sent on 29 September to the justice minister and to gendarmerie and police leaders, setting out its findings and questions.
Senegal is part of a wider regional trend towards the suppression of LGBTQ+ people’s rights through increasingly punitive legislation. Niger criminalised same-sex relations in February, with dozens of arrests since, following similar laws in Mali and Burkina Faso in the past two years. In May, Ghana passed a bill criminalising LGBTQ+ “activities”, which awaits the president’s signature. Behind these laws are people whose daily lives are changing. A community worker in Dakar told HRW that, even without being in prison right now, “I live like I am in prison”.
written by Sara Speranza
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