A young man has become the first person sentenced under Senegal’s newly enacted anti-LGBTQ+ law, raising serious human rights concerns.
According to the Associated Press, the man, described as a 24-year-old labourer, was sentenced last week to six years in prison by a court in the Dakar suburb of Pikine-Guédiawaye.
The court convicted him of committing “acts against nature and public indecency” after authorities arrested him earlier this month. In addition to the prison term, the court imposed a fine of 2 million CFA (approximately $3,300).
Human Rights Groups Condemn Conviction
Human Rights Watch condemned the conviction, describing the prison sentence as “unlawful under international law”.
The organisation noted that Senegal remains bound by treaty obligations “that protect every person’s right to dignity, privacy and equality.”
Senegal’s President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, signed the law at the end of March after lawmakers – who claimed it aimed to protect “African values” – overwhelmingly approved it.
Harsh Penalties and Restrictions
The legislation effectively doubled existing penalties for consensual same-sex intimacy — defined to include homosexuality, bisexuality and “transsexuality” — to up to ten years in prison and fines exceeding US$17,000.
It also criminalises the funding and so-called “promotion of LGBT ideology”, restricting freedom of expression and outlawing advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights under threat of three to seven years’ imprisonment.
The law has drawn condemnation from human rights groups, the UN HIV/AIDS agency, UNAIDS, and Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Wider Crackdown on LGBTQ+ People
The passage of the law forms part of a broader crackdown on LGBTQ+ people in Senegal. Media reports indicate that authorities arrested more than 20 individuals in the weeks leading up to the vote.
Senegal remains one of around 30 countries in Africa that continue to criminalise people because of who they love or how they identify.
Ghana, also in West Africa, is set to vote on its own extreme anti-LGBTQ+ bill after it was recently reintroduced into parliament.
