Gay Travel Advisory

Senegal

Penal Code from 1965

Sources
  1. Text of the law is available at: https://wipolex.wipo.int/en/details.jsp?id=6336

Legal Code Text

Article 319(3) - “Without prejudice to the more serious penalties provided for in the preceding paragraphs or by articles 320 and 321 of this Code, whoever will have committed an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex will be punished by imprisonment of between one and five years and by a fine of 100,000 to 1,500,000 francs. If the act was committed with a person below the age of 21, the maximum penalty will always be applied.”

Sources
  1. Original text: “Sans préjudice des peines plus graves prévues par lês alinéas qui précédent ou par les articles 320 et 321 du présent Code, sera puni d’un emprisonnement d’un à cinq ans et d’une amende de 100.000 à 1.500.000 francs, quiconque aura commis um acte impudique ou contre nature avec un individu de son sexe. Si l’acte a été commis avec un mineur de 21 ans, le maximum de la peine sera toujours prononcé.”

ILGA Analysis & Notes

On 24 December 2015, 11 men were arrested on suspicion of offenses under Section 319. The court released them four days later, but their faces and identities had been shared on social media, stirring huge public homophobia. The backlash to their release was led by the Islamic organisation, Jamra. Around 90% of the population is estimated to be Muslim (Sufi), but Senegal borders with Northern Nigeria where Boko Haram are active, and its neighbor, Gambia, recently declared itself an Islamic state. In its 2nd cycle UPR cycle in October 2013, the Government of Senegal received 13 SOGI recommendations, seven of them (from Belgium, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland and Mexico) to repeal the above-mentioned article. The Government rejected them and argued that Article 319 must be interpreted as a punishment for “unnatural acts committed in public”, and that nobody has been imprisoned for same-sex sexual activity in the country. In March 2016, in the context of discussions around Constitutional reform, the President of Senegal was unequivocal that the law penalising same sex sexual relations will never be repealed under his tenure. Later in March, campus violence broke out concerning a young gay man.

Continues to criminalise under Penal Code (1966) Art. 319 (1-5 years). An April 2023 bill to increase penalties was rejected by the Bureau of the National Assembly -- not on rights grounds, but because the conduct was already deemed adequately illegal.