United Nations Agencies Lead Globalization of Sex Education
HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIETY & CULTURE
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
In a publication released at the end of June, the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) claims that international law requires States to “provide sexuality education in primary and secondary schools.” UNESCO’s 98-page publication, International Guidelines on Sexuality Education, promotes sex education as an “entitlement” for children and adolescents. Disturbingly, UNESCO published the guidelines in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization whose mission includes the controversial promotion of universal access to “reproductive health services.”
According to UNESCO, the primary goal of sexuality education is to fight the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancies, and combat abusive sexual behaviors by equipping young people with the skills they need to practice “healthy” sexual activity before they become sexually active. Schools are seen as the ideal forum for such instruction because of their ability to reach so many children and adolescents, and because of their standing as trusted sources of information within the community. Indeed, according to the International Guidelines, “sexuality education is part of the duty…of education and health authorities and institutions.”
UNESCO created the International Guidelines in partnership with United Nations Population Fund in order to help State education and health officials develop and implement formal school-based sexuality education curricula. The guidelines grew out of a study commissioned by UNESCO and UNFPA, which considered the various types of sexuality education currently in use and their effects on sexual behavior. According to the study’s findings, curriculum-based sexuality education is effective in reducing “risky sexual behavior.”
Rather than providing detailed lesson plans, the International Guidelines are designed to be a “global template” of minimum standards that all sexuality education courses should achieve. The International Guidelines provide background on the need for sexuality education and young people’s entitlement to it. They outline the central role that schools should play in implementing the right to sexuality education, and give instruction on how decision-makers can build support for sexuality education within individual communities. Finally, the International Guidelines lay out a “basic minimum package” of topics and learning objectives that should be included in an effective sexuality education curriculum.
Though the health goals of the International Guidelines may be laudable, particularly for those countries where AIDS is a significant health problem, UNESCO is using many of its recommended learning objectives to indoctrinate young people in so called “emerging” human rights that are not universally agreed upon within the international community. For example, in addition to teaching children and adolescents about the causes and methods of prevention of AIDS and other STIs, the International Guidelines also provide instruction on such topics as sexual orientation and related rights, “sexual and reproductive rights,” the role of women within families, the “right and access to safe abortion,” and an implied right to sex.
Further, though the International Guidelines consistently acknowledge that sexuality education must be “age-appropriate,” UNESCO is setting itself up as the ultimate authority in determining what suitable age groups are for very controversial and sensitive subject matters. In this way, UNESCO is effectively usurping parental authority. The International Guidelines even go so far as to claim that “teachers in the classroom have a responsibility to act in the place of parents, contributing towards ensuring the protection and well-being of children and young people.” In addition, the publication supports parent training courses that parallel the sexuality education that their children are receiving in the classroom, so that the lessons taught at school can be reinforced in the home.
UNESCO admits that the International Guidelines are not legally binding and must be implemented on a voluntary basis. However, the concept of a right to sexuality education is gaining momentum within the international community. Human rights treaty monitoring committees are beginning to require that States provide sexuality education in order to fulfill certain treaty obligations. This can be seen most recently in the latest round of Concluding Observations issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, where the Committee repeatedly insists that it is the duty of the State to provide “sexual and reproductive health education” to children and adolescents. Such actions by UN treaty committee bodies take the debate of these disputable issues out of the public square and place them firmly in the hands of unaccountable UN “experts.”
Jim Kelly serves as Director of International Affairs for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and as Co-Director of Global Governance Watch. The opinions expressed herein are his own.
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