France said on Thursday it was "concerned" by the "harsher penalties faced by LGBTQ+ individuals" in Senegal, which adopted a law in March doubling prison sentences for homosexual acts and carried out its first conviction under the new rules last week.
"France expresses its concern regarding the harsher penalties faced by LGBTQ+ persons in Senegal and the creation of new offenses related to the advocacy or financing of the promotion of homosexuality," stated French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux during a press briefing.
Minister Jean-Noël Barrot "raised the issue with his counterpart," Cheikh Niang, on Monday when he received him at the Foreign Ministry, Confavreux added.
A court in Dakar sentenced a young Senegalese man, born in 2002, to six years in prison on April 10 after he was caught having sex with another man in a Dakar suburb.
Senegal, a predominantly Muslim nation, passed a law in mid-March doubling the sentences for homosexual acts, which are now punishable by five to ten years in prison. This comes amid a wave of homophobia in the country and a series of arrests of individuals for alleged homosexuality.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has condemned the law as one that "violates" human rights.
France is "globally committed to the universal decriminalization of homosexuality, the defense of LGBTQ+ rights, and the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation," Confavreux added on Thursday.
With AFP
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