Question 16982 — foreign policy

Summary

Mr. Pouria Amirshahi draws the attention of the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs to the alarming deterioration of the situation of LGBTQIA+ people in Senegal, as well as in Ghana where a text of the same inspiration is currently being examined. On March 11, 2026, the National Assembly of Senegal adopted a law doubling the penalties incurred for "unnatural acts", now punishable by five to ten years of imprisonment and introduced sanctions linked to the “promotion” of homosexuality. The Senegalese Prime Minister, Mr. Ousmane Sonko, has also publicly denounced LGBT rights as contrary to the country's values ​​and rejected any idea of ​​suspending or relaxing the new provisions, which he intends to include in a fight against "Western influence". Promulgated on March 31, 2026, this law now makes Senegal one of the most repressive states of Africa towards LGBT+ people. Beyond the toughening of criminal sanctions, it takes place in a context marked by the increase in hate speech, arbitrary arrests, attacks and discrimination targeting people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Several human rights organizations are warning of a climate of fear leading some of the persons affected by clandestinity or exile. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Türk, for his part denounced a text which “tramples” human rights. In this context, he asks what arrangements are planned for the reception in France of LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers from Senegal, particularly in terms of orientation, protection, accommodation and administrative support. He him also asks what measures the Government intends to take to ensure that the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) as well as the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) take full account, when examining asylum applications, of the deterioration in the situation of LGBTQIA+ people in Senegal. Finally, he wishes to know the diplomatic initiatives, bilateral or multilateral, that France intends to carry in order to defend the rights of LGBTQIA+ people and to fight against their penalization and the persecution to which they are subject in Senegal, as well as in other states engaged in a similar tightening of their legislation.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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