What the law says in Senegal on violence, land and the family

Senegal has built a real legal base for women’s rights. Gaps remain, and some of them shape the daily lives of women and girls. This overview draws on RFLD’s Senegal country law profile, verified as of October 2026. It adds a new section on land, based on the laws themselves and on published research.

Violence against women

Loi n° 99-05 du 29 janvier 1999 reformed the Penal Code on several forms of violence. Later laws filled further gaps.

• Spousal violence: Article 297 bis makes a deliberate assault on a spouse a specific offence. Where it causes more than 20 days of incapacity, the penalty is 1 to 5 years in prison and a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 CFA francs. Heavier penalties apply in cases of mutilation or death.
• Sexual harassment: Article 319 bis punishes abuse of authority to obtain sexual favours with 6 months to 3 years in prison and a fine.
• Female genital mutilation: Article 299 bis punishes total or partial excision, or an attempt, with 6 months to 5 years in prison. Medical staff face the maximum penalty. Life imprisonment applies where the victim dies.
• Rape: Loi n° 2020-05 du 10 janvier 2020 made rape and paedophilia felonies. Before this reform, rape was treated as a crime only when it caused the victim’s death.
• Trafficking: Loi n° 2005-06 du 10 mai 2005 sets penalties of 5 to 10 years, and up to 30 years in aggravated cases. Victims are protected from prosecution and removal during proceedings.

The reproductive health law, Loi n° 2005-18 du 5 août 2005, adds in Article 13 that all forms of violence and sexual abuse are punishable. RFLD’s profile reports weak enforcement of this law. For a survivor, a strong text on paper means little if no one applies it.

The family

Family life is governed by Loi n° 72-61 du 12 juin 1972 portant Code de la famille. Among other matters, it regulates marriage and parental authority. Women’s rights advocates criticise a structure built on “the primacy of the father”. This shows in unequal parental authority and in limits on paternity searches.

Article 111 sets the minimum age of marriage at 16 for women and 18 for men. A regional court president may grant a dispensation for serious reasons after an inquiry. The Maputo Protocol requires a minimum age of 18. Senegal ratified the Protocol on 27 December 2004, so this gap needs attention.

Some progress is clear. Loi n° 2013-05 du 8 juillet 2013 allows women to pass their nationality to their children and to a foreign husband.

Inheritance

The Family Code contains a separate regime for Muslim successions. Under these rules, the profile notes, “a daughter receives half the share of a son”. Inheritance decides who holds family property. This rule therefore has direct effects on women’s assets, and on land in particular, as the next section shows.

Land

Land is where many of these rules meet. A woman’s access to a field or a house plot depends on land law as much as on the Family Code. Local custom also weighs heavily. The legal framework dates back decades and is still waiting for reform.

The constitutional promise

The Constitution of 22 January 2001 guarantees the right to property in Article 15. The same article states that “l’homme et la femme ont également le droit d’accéder à la possession et à la propriété de la terre dans les conditions déterminées par la loi”. Men and women have an equal right to possess and own land. The final words matter, because the conditions are set by ordinary laws.

The national domain law of 1964

Loi n° 64-46 du 17 juin 1964 relative au domaine national was adopted shortly after independence. It placed all unregistered land in the national domain. The Comité technique Foncier & Développement describes four zones within it:

• urban zones;
• pioneer zones, where large public irrigation schemes were planned;
• classified zones;
• terroir zones, used for farming and livestock.

The law removed customary rights. In their place, land users received a simple right of use. This right can be withdrawn if the land is not developed, a condition known as mise en valeur. A 2013 country study for the same Comité adds that an allocation by a rural council “ne confère qu’un droit d’usage et ne peut faire l’objet d’aucune transaction”. The study also notes that the law never defined mise en valeur clearly, which opened the door to abuse.

Loi n° 76-66 du 2 juillet 1976 portant Code du domaine de l’État completed this framework. It governs land held by the State, divided into a public domain and a private domain.

Decentralisation without the means

Decentralisation laws of 1972 and 1996 transferred the management of terroir zones to rural communities, now called communes. According to Foncier & Développement, these bodies never received the means to exercise this power. Customary management continued in most regions, with the tacit approval of the administration and local elected officials. The 2013 study is direct about the effect on women: under customary tenure, “les femmes sont généralement exclues de l’héritage des terres”.

The 2011 land registration law

RFLD reviewed two official documents on the law that now governs land titles. The first is the text of Loi n° 2011-07 du 30 mars 2011 portant régime de la Propriété foncière, as published in the Journal officiel n° 6607 of 13 August 2011. The second is the legislative file sent to the National Assembly. It contains Décret n° 2010-427 du 31 mars 2010, which ordered the bill to be tabled, together with the statement of reasons and the report of the joint parliamentary committee that examined bill n° 12/2010.

The 2011 law replaced the colonial decree of 26 July 1932 (Article 96). Several provisions shape women’s land security:

• Only the State registers land. Article 4 states that only the State may request the registration of land in the land books. Article 36 limits registration to land of the national domain.
• Rights exist once they are recorded. Article 20 provides that real rights take effect against third parties only once they are made public. Article 19 lists them, including ownership, usufruct and rights of use and habitation.
• A title is final. Under Article 42, a land title is “définitif et inattaquable”. Article 43 bars later claims to rights that were not revealed during the procedure. Article 44 leaves anyone harmed by a registration with a claim for damages only.
• Inheritance goes through the Family Code. Article 49 requires transfers on death to be recorded through notarial acts, with a final judgment of heredity under Article 403 of the Family Code.
• Heirs have six months. Article 71 allows an heir who claims all or part of an estate within six months of the opening of the succession to ask for the cancellation of an entry made to their prejudice.
• Land books are open. Article 77 allows any person to obtain information from the land books, on payment of fees.

Read together, these articles carry the inheritance rules of the Family Code straight into the land register. A widow or a daughter left out of a heredity judgment has a short window to act. Once a title is final, she can at most seek compensation. Access to the land books under Article 77 is therefore a practical tool for women and their advocates.

The committee report shows that members of parliament saw the limits of the reform. They called for wider consultation. They warned that in rural areas, people’s bond with land is tied to the protection of a family heritage, and cannot be reduced to securing precarious titles. They also asked for stronger cadastre services. The committee adopted the bill by majority. The National Assembly passed it on 22 February 2011 and the Senate on 18 March 2011.

Reform attempts that stalled

Senegal has tried to reform its land system several times. In 1996, a Plan d’action foncier was drafted. It leaned towards privatising land and met strong opposition from local elected officials and farmers’ organisations. The State abandoned it.

The national council of rural producers, the CNCR, then set out its own proposals. According to Foncier & Développement, these fed into the Loi d’orientation agro-sylvo-pastorale (LOASP), Loi n° 2004-16, promulgated in 2004. Its land provisions deserve attention:

• Article 22 calls the definition of a land policy and the reform of the national domain law “des leviers indispensables” for agricultural development. Article 23 then required a new land policy and a land reform bill within two years of the law’s promulgation. That deadline passed long ago.
• Article 54 states: “L’Etat assure la parité des droits des femmes et des hommes en milieu rural, en particulier dans l’exploitation agricole.” It adds that women shall receive easier access to land and credit.

After his election, President Macky Sall set up a Commission nationale de réforme foncière (CNRF). Its process was participatory, with workshops at commune and department level that involved civil society. A land policy document was submitted to the highest authorities in early 2018. Foncier & Développement reports that it has had no follow-up since the CNRF was dissolved. Development projects have since changed land governance without a clear policy. Civil society fears a “réforme en douceur”, a quiet reform that ignores the needs of rural people.

What the numbers show

The gap between Article 15 and daily life is wide. Research by the IPAR think tank, reported by Le Soleil in August 2026, found that women held about 12% of land nationally in 2023. The same article cites the 2024 annual agricultural survey, which found that women make up 15% of farm managers.

Recent developments, 2024 to 2026

On 29 April 2024, service note n° 818 MFB/DGID ordered the provisional suspension of land and domain procedures on a list of sites. The decision followed instructions from President Bassirou Diomaye Faye. It covered several sites in Dakar, including the coastline, and others in Thiès, Mbour and Saint-Louis. The tax and domains directorate lifted the suspension in part in January 2025 for holders cleared by an audit. In July 2026, the Prime Minister’s office asked a monitoring committee to complete the remaining acts and site inventories during the second half of 2026.

These measures target irregular allocations. As of October 2026, RFLD has found no published new land policy or reform bill. The promise of Article 54 of the LOASP still waits for a law that gives it force.

What advocates are watching

• The marriage age of 16 for girls under Article 111 of the Family Code.
• Abortion under Loi n° 65-60 du 21 juillet 1965, which has no exception for rape or incest. The Maputo Protocol requires one.
• The absence of a specific law protecting human rights defenders. A draft was submitted to the Minister of Justice in May 2024.
• The AU Convention on Ending Violence against Women and Girls, which Senegal has not signed.
• A land reform that puts the equal rights in Article 15 of the Constitution and Article 54 of the LOASP into practice, with women and Vulnerable Groups at the table.

The Maputo Protocol has been ratified by 46 of the 55 African Union member states. Senegal is one of them. Article 19(c) of the Protocol asks States to promote women’s access to and control over productive resources such as land, and to guarantee their right to property.

Explore the laws of all 55 African Union member states on our Women’s Rights Laws by Country page. Learn more about the treaty behind these standards on the Maputo Protocol Hub.

References

1. RFLD. Senegal: Women’s Rights Laws, country law profile (verified October 2026). https://rflgd.org/womens-rights-laws/senegal-laws/
2. RFLD. Women’s Rights Laws by Country. https://rflgd.org/womens-rights-laws/
3. RFLD. Maputo Protocol Hub. https://rflgd.org/maputo-protocol/
4. République du Sénégal. Constitution du 22 janvier 2001, Article 15. https://www.icla.up.ac.za/images/constitutions/Senegal-Constitution-2001-French.pdf
5. République du Sénégal. Loi n° 2011-07 du 30 mars 2011 portant régime de la Propriété foncière, Journal officiel n° 6607 du 13 août 2011 (PDF of the official text, 18 pages, reviewed by RFLD).
6. République du Sénégal, Assemblée nationale. Legislative file on the bill “portant régime de la propriété foncière”: Décret n° 2010-427 du 31 mars 2010 ordonnant la présentation à l’Assemblée nationale de projets de loi; exposé des motifs; report of the joint committee (Commission de l’Économie générale, des Finances, du Plan et de la Coopération économique and Commission de l’Urbanisme, de l’Habitat, de l’Équipement et des Transports) on bill n° 12/2010; text adopted on 22 February 2011 (PDF, 39 pages, reviewed by RFLD).
7. Comité technique Foncier & Développement. Sénégal (country page). https://www.foncier-developpement.fr/pays/afrique-de-louest/senegal/
8. Touré, O. and Seck, S. M. (2013). Amélioration de la gouvernance foncière au Sénégal : enjeux actuels et défis pour l’avenir. Fiche pays n° 3, Comité technique Foncier & Développement. https://www.foncier-developpement.fr/wp-content/uploads/Fiche-pays-3-Senegal.pdf
9. République du Sénégal. Loi n° 2004-16 portant Loi d’orientation agro-sylvo-pastorale, Articles 22, 23 and 54 (FAOLEX). https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/sen44795.pdf
10. Le Soleil (29 August 2026). Terres agricoles : les femmes n’en détiennent qu’environ 12 %. https://lesoleil.sn/actualites/economie/terres-agricoles-les-femmes-nen-detiennent-quenviron-12/
11. AllAfrica (30 January 2025). Sénégal : Gestion du foncier, levée partielle de la suspension des procédures domaniales et cadastrales. https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/202501300456.html
12. AllAfrica / Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (7 July 2026). Sénégal : Le gouvernement accélère la levée des suspensions sur plusieurs lotissements et pôles urbains. https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/202607070239.html
13. African Union. Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), Article 19(c). Text and ratification status available through the RFLD Maputo Protocol Hub (reference 3).