In a significant diplomatic move, France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, declared on social media platform X on Saturday that Paris is advancing a draft resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council. This proposed measure aims to universally prohibit states from criminalizing LGBT+ individuals. This French initiative comes approximately two months after Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye enacted a law that intensifies the crackdown on homosexuality. Notably, a French national is currently detained in Dakar under the provisions of this same legislation.
“You can count on France: it works, and will always work for the human rights agenda to advance,” the head of French diplomacy affirmed, acknowledging a “conservative surge” that has seemingly gained traction across most regions of the globe over the past decade.
Senegal’s new legislation sparks diplomatic sequence
The new legislation, which the Senegalese National Assembly overwhelmingly adopted on March 11, 2026, with 135 votes and no opposition, was subsequently promulgated on March 30. This law significantly raises the maximum prison sentence for “acts against nature” from five to ten years and escalates fines tenfold, now capping them at ten million CFA francs. Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko championed the text as a matter of national sovereignty. It also introduces an offense for the promotion, support, or financing of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality.
Previously, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk had urged Dakar not to enact the legislation, arguing that it violated Senegal’s international commitments. On April 16, Pascal Confavreux, spokesperson for the Quai d’Orsay (French Foreign Ministry), conveyed Paris’s apprehension, noting that Minister Barrot had addressed the issue with his Senegalese counterpart, Cheikh Niang, during a meeting at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
French national held in Dakar
Since February 14, a French citizen has been held in detention in Senegal on charges related to the new legislation. According to the Quai d’Orsay, the French consulate in Dakar has visited the individual four times, and diplomatic services remain in contact with their family. Separately, on April 10, a Dakar court sentenced a young Senegalese man, born in 2002, to six years in prison for similar offenses.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that 62 states worldwide continue to criminalize consensual homosexual relations, with eleven of these jurisdictions even prescribing the death penalty. The specific date for the examination of France’s proposed resolution by the Human Rights Council in Geneva has not yet been announced.
