By Sophie Lindqvist

At least 320 people have been arrested in Senegal since February on allegations of "acts against nature", according to a Human Rights Watch report published on 12 October 2026. The detentions follow the toughening of the country's law criminalising homosexuality.

Among those arrested, at least 84 face charges of "voluntary HIV transmission" (the criminal allegation that an HIV-positive person passed the virus to another). HRW says prosecutors based these charges solely on the detainees' HIV status. No evidence of actual transmission appears in the charging decisions the report describes.

The Human Rights Watch findings draw on case data compiled by the HIV Justice Network, an advocacy organisation tracking HIV criminalisation worldwide.

What does the crackdown look like in practice?

The report describes three coordinated enforcement methods:

• Mass arrests — more than 320 detentions since February 2026 under the offence of "acts against nature", the statute's operative language for consensual same-sex conduct.
• Forced HIV testing — detainees undergoing compulsory blood tests, with results then folded into criminal charges.
• Barriers to legal representation — accused persons facing obstruction or denial of access to defence counsel.

The combined effect, HRW argues, violates Senegal's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the country ratified in 1978.

Think of it as a dragnet rather than a series of individual prosecutions. The state applies one statute, adds a health-status charge, and removes the defendant's ability to fight back. That mechanism is what turns 320 arrests into a systemic crackdown.

Why does the HIV transmission charge matter legally?

The charge of "voluntary HIV transmission" carries particular weight for practitioners. HRW reports that all 84 charged individuals were prosecuted on status alone — the fact of testing positive treated as proof of criminal conduct.

That inverts the normal evidentiary burden. A transmission charge ordinarily requires proof that the virus passed from one person to another. Here, the report indicates, seropositivity itself substitutes for evidence of transmission.

The practical consequence cuts two ways. First, HIV testing becomes an instrument of criminal investigation rather than healthcare. Second, anyone in Senegal living with HIV faces legal exposure that has nothing to do with conduct. Public health workers have long warned this dynamic deterres testing and treatment — if a diagnosis can trigger prosecution, people avoid clinics.

What happens to those detained?

HRW describes LGBTQ+ people going into hiding across Senegal as arrests accelerate. The report does not aggregate final case outcomes; many prosecutions remain pending.

For defence lawyers and human rights monitors, the report flags three pressure points:

• Access to counsel remains blocked or restricted in documented cases.
• Forced testing results are feeding directly into charge sheets.
• The toughened statute has widened the enforcement net since February.

What are the wider implications?

Senegal's criminal code has long punished same-sex conduct. What changed is the scale and the method. The February 2026 toughening of the law, combined with mass arrests and status-based HIV charges, marks a shift from sporadic enforcement to systematic suppression — the difference between occasional raids and a standing dragnet.

International human rights bodies have repeatedly held that criminalising consensual same-sex conduct violates privacy and non-discrimination guarantees. Senegal's treaty commitments sit uneasily beside the practices HRW documents.

For practitioners tracking HIV criminalisation, the Senegal figures now rank among the largest documented crackdowns globally. The 84 status-based transmission charges represent a data point advocates will cite in regional and UN fora.

The report, published 12 October 2026, calls on Senegalese authorities to release those detained on discriminatory grounds and to halt forced testing. The government's response, if any, remains to be seen.

Global Law Wire will continue to follow the prosecutions as they move through Senegalese courts.