Réforme de l’article 319 : ce qui va changer avec la nouvelle loi sur les «actes contre-nature»
In an interview with Le Soleil, legal experts analyzed the proposed reform of Article 319 of the Penal Code in Senegal. This text aims to toughen the penalties and fines associated with "acts against nature," while providing a more precise legal definition to a concept previously considered vague.
This initiative comes in a context marked by the dismantling of networks of suspected homosexuals by the Keur Massar Research Brigade (BR) and the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC). With some thirty people currently in pretrial detention, the government has decided to strengthen the repression of morality offenses, explicitly citing homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, necrophilia, and zoophilia.
One of the major objectives of the reform is to end the legal ambiguity surrounding the current wording of Article 319, which is often criticized for its imprecision. According to Gilbert Faye, a lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences (FSJP) of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD), "the law will explicitly describe what is prohibited," which will reduce the scope for interpretation by judges and law enforcement and provide greater "legal clarity."
Despite pressure from certain movements advocating for outright criminalization, such as "And Samm Jikko Yi" or the NGO Jamra, the state is instead favoring harsher penalties. The interviewee for the national daily newspaper reiterated that "criminal law should not punish identities, orientations, or opinions as such," but rather "socially and legally harmful behaviors already defined by law, in accordance with the principle of legality."
The expert also insists that "a global criminalization could conflict with the constitutional principle of non-discrimination as well as with Senegal's international commitments."
For his part, Ousmane Thiam, a lawyer at the Dakar bar, believes that this tightening will allow the State to regain control and prevent citizens from taking justice into their own hands, recalling that "the State must preserve social peace".
Finally, experts emphasize a crucial point: the non-retroactivity of the harsher criminal law. Consequently, the reform cannot be applied to offenses committed before its entry into force. Those prosecuted in recent cases will therefore be tried under the current, less severe legislation.
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