French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, revealed on the social platform X that Paris is advancing a draft resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council. This initiative seeks to prohibit states from criminalizing LGBT+ individuals. The diplomatic effort from France emerges two months after Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed into law stricter measures against homosexuality. Notably, a French national is currently held in Dakar under the provisions of this same legislation.
“You can rely on France: it strives, and will perpetually strive, to propel the human rights agenda forward,” stated the head of French diplomacy. He pointed to a “conservative push” that has been observed across many global regions over the past decade.
Diplomatic sequence initiated following the march 11 law
The new legal framework, which passed the Senegalese National Assembly on March 11, 2026, with a unanimous 135 votes and was enacted on March 30, significantly stiffens penalties. It elevates the maximum prison term for “acts against nature” from five to ten years and escalates fines by a factor of ten, now reaching ten million CFA francs. This legislation, championed by Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko as a matter of national sovereignty, additionally criminalizes the promotion, endorsement, or funding of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, had previously called upon Dakar to refrain from enacting the legislation, asserting it infringed upon Senegal’s international obligations. On April 16, Pascal Confavreux, spokesperson for the Quai d’Orsay, conveyed Paris’s apprehension, noting that Minister Barrot had addressed the issue with his Senegalese counterpart, Cheikh Niang, during a discussion at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
French national detained in Dakar
A French national has been held in custody in Senegal since February 14, facing charges related to the provisions of the new law. The French consulate in Dakar has conducted four visits, according to officials at the Quai d’Orsay, who also confirm ongoing communication with the individual’s family. Separately, on April 10, a court in Dakar handed down a six-year prison sentence to a young Senegalese man, born in 2002, for comparable infractions.
Data from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates that 62 nations continue to criminalize consensual homosexual relationships, with eleven of these jurisdictions imposing the death penalty. The specific date for the Human Rights Council in Geneva to review the proposed French resolution remains undisclosed.
