Senegal’s National Assembly late on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a \u200cbill doubling the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts to 10 years and criminalising any efforts to promote homosexuality.<\/p>\n
The law \u2013 passed by 135 votes to zero, with three abstentions \u2013 fulfils a campaign promise of the government that \u200bcame to power in 2024, led by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister \u200bOusmane Sonko. It now awaits Faye’s signature.<\/p>\n
Senegal’s penal code already carried an article, last \u2060amended in 1966, imposing up to five years’ jail and fines of up to 1,500,000 CFA \u200bfrancs ($2,700) for “acts against nature”.<\/p>\n
The new version doubles the maximum term and allows for fines of up to 10 million \u200bCFA francs.<\/p>\n
ANTI-LGBT LAWS TIGHTENED ACROSS WEST AFRICA<\/strong><\/p>\n It says a judge may not grant a suspended sentence, or use their discretion to reduce a prison term below the minimum.<\/p>\n It specifies that acts against nature relate to homosexuality, bisexuality, “transsexuality”, zoophilia and \u200bnecrophilia.<\/p>\n Those found guilty of promoting or financing such acts also face prison time.<\/p>\n Imam Babacar Sylla, \u200bleader of And Samm Jikko Yi, a network of Islamic and civil society organizations, urged Faye to sign the bill into law as soon \u200cas \u2060possible.<\/p>\n “The longer it takes, the more complicated it will be. And these people, whom I consider a public danger, will continue to escape,” he said.<\/p>\n In the weeks leading up to Wednesday’s vote, supporters of the bill, including lawmakers from the ruling Pastef party, organised demonstrations in Dakar in which participants shouted “No \u200bto homosexuality!” and held \u200bsigns with rainbows crossed \u2060out.<\/p>\n The period has also been marked by a surge in arrests of men on suspicion of “acts against nature” as well as, in some cases, “voluntary \u200btransmission” of HIV \u2013 a crime carrying up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n \u200bSome 27 men \u2060were arrested between February 9 and 24, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.<\/p>\n Last year, Burkina Faso passed a law criminalizing same-sex sexual relations for the first time, imposing prison terms of up \u2060to \u200bfive years.<\/p>\n Lawmakers in Ghana are considering raising the maximum penalty \u200bfor same-sex sexual acts from three years to five and imposing jail time for the “wilful promotion, sponsorship or support of LGBTQ+ activities”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Senegal’s National Assembly late on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a \u200cbill doubling the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts to 10 years and criminalising any efforts to promote homosexuality. The law \u2013 passed by 135 votes to zero, with three abstentions \u2013 fulfils a campaign promise of the government that \u200bcame to power in 2024, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":20,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,34,27],"tags":[1539,1203,283],"class_list":["post-20153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-society","category-west-africa","tag-lgbtq","tag-ousmane-sonko","tag-senegal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20155,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20153\/revisions\/20155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}