Hundreds Arrested in Senegal’s Anti-Gay Crackdown
Human Rights Watch says fear of prosecution is driving LGBTQ people into hiding and keeping some from seeking HIV care.
Senegal has launched a harsh crackdown on LGBTQ people, making mass arrests and violating their rights, leading some to go into hiding for fear of prosecution.
In March, Senegalese lawmakers passed a law doubling the maximum prison term for same-sex relations to 10 years and criminalizing pro-LGBTQ advocacy, including the promotion or financing of homosexuality.
Even before the enhanced penalties were passed, the country’s law criminalizing “acts against nature” was used to prosecute same-sex activity. The law also groups same-sex activity with necrophilia and bestiality, among other offenses.
Human Rights Watch, an international rights watchdog, published a report on October 12 outlining the extent of the crackdown, noting that the enhanced penalties for violating the “acts against nature” law have forced some people into hiding, while others are avoiding HIV testing and treatment out of fear of being “outed” as LGBTQ.
“We have noticed that […] some people have fled while others are hiding,” a doctor in Dakar said of the decline in people seeking HIV prevention or health care services. “One-third no longer come in for appointments to seek HIV treatment.”
The report noted that while there is no official data on the number of arrests, the African Forum for the Defense of Human Rights, a Dakar-based rights group, estimates that at least 212 people were arrested between February and July.
HIV Justice Network says that the number of arrests during the same period is much higher, putting the number of arrestees at 320. Of those, at least 84 have been charged with “voluntary HIV transmission” due to their HIV-positive status — not taking into account whether any condoms or other safe sex practices were undertaken to prevent transmission.
Newspaper reports indicate that those arrested were subjected to HIV testing and their personal information, such as their HIV status and names, was subsequently disclosed in the media, reports The Associated Press.
The report also notes that law enforcement authorities have stated that they have arrested people suspected of engaging in same-sex conduct based on information from the previously seized phones of other arrestees, third-party allegations, or occasional raids of private premises.
“LGBT people are being forced to curb their normal activities and to keep from exercising their rights for fear of arrest and increased stigma,” Larissa Kojoué, an LGBTQ+ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Senegal’s government should call a halt to this crackdown, which threatens everyone’s rights.”
Same-sex sexual conduct has been criminalized in Senegal since 1965, but hostility toward LGBTQ people has significantly increased in recent years, according to the report. Senegal is one of at least 30 African countries that criminalize same-sex intimacy and, with the enhanced penalties, has joined the ranks of countries like Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania that impose prison sentences of at least 10 years.
In other African countries, like Somalia, Uganda, and Mauritania, same-sex relations can carry the death penalty.
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