The Dutch embassy in Senegal decided on Friday to cancel a planned LGBTIQ+event in the capital Dakar. That decision followed a warning from the Senegalese government not to let the meeting continue. During the event, which would take place on Friday morning, a film would be shown, followed by a discussion about LGBTIQ+issues in West Africa.
Homosexuality is punishable in Senegal. When someone has sex with a person of the same sex, he can get a prison sentence up to five years. “Senegal does not accept any form of propaganda or promotion of the LGBTI phenomenon on its territory,” wrote the Senegalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Facebook. The Ministry pointed out that such international activities ‘absolutely must be in accordance with applicable laws and regulations of the country’.
Ambassador
A Member of Parliament of the largest political party in Senegal, Guy Marius Sagna, already called on the government on Thursday to ban the event. “The Netherlands and other countries are free to support LGBTI people in their own country. That is not possible here in Senegal,” he said. The Senegalese government also summoned the Dutch ambassador.
The Dutch embassy then decided to delete the planned event. In a short response NRC Let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs know that the Netherlands stands for ‘human rights and equal treatment’, but that the event was canceled because of ‘various factors’.
The meeting would be organized in collaboration with the Equal Rights Coalition, a collaboration of a number of like -minded embassies. The film afternoon would be about the rights of LGBTIQ+women and Trans people in West Africa.