France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced on Saturday via the social platform X that Paris is spearheading a draft resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council. This resolution aims to prohibit states from criminalizing LGBT+ individuals. This significant diplomatic move comes two months after Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye enacted a law intensifying the repression of homosexuality. The situation is further complicated as a French national is currently detained in Dakar under the provisions of this very legislation, a development closely watched in West Africa news.
“You can count on France: it works, and will always work, to advance the human rights agenda,” stated the head of French diplomacy, acknowledging a “conservative surge” that has been gaining traction across most global regions over the past decade. This reflects a broader trend impacting African politics and human rights discussions.
a diplomatic sequence initiated by the march 11 law
The new legislation, passed by the Senegalese National Assembly on March 11, 2026, with an overwhelming 135 votes and no opposition, was subsequently promulgated on March 30. This law escalates the maximum prison sentence for “acts against nature” from five to ten years and multiplies the ceiling for fines tenfold, now set at ten million CFA francs. Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko championed the text as a measure of national sovereignty. Furthermore, the law introduces an offense for promoting, supporting, or financing homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality, sparking considerable debate in pan-African news circles.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk had previously urged Dakar not to enact the legislation, asserting that it undermined Senegal’s international commitments. On April 16, Pascal Confavreux, spokesperson for the Quai d’Orsay, conveyed Paris’s deep concern, specifying 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 detained in Dakar
A French citizen has been held in detention in Senegal since February 14, facing charges under the new law. According to the Quai d’Orsay, the French consulate in Dakar has visited the individual on four occasions, and officials remain in contact with the detainee’s family. Separately, on April 10, a Dakar court sentenced a young Senegalese man, born in 2002, to six years of firm imprisonment for similar offenses, adding to the ongoing human rights discourse reported by Panafrica News and other Africa news English outlets.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates 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 the French draft resolution by the Human Rights Council in Geneva has not yet been announced.
