UNESCO's Draft Sex Education Guidelines Draw Criticism

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 09 Sep 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization this week is scheduled to release draft international sex education guidelines, the New York Times reports. The guidelines -- which UNESCO, the World Health Organization and UNICEF have been working on for more than two years -- are designed to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, improve sexual health and reduce the number of illegal abortions through sex education. Once finalized, the guidelines will be internationally distributed to education ministries, school systems and teachers to help direct educators in teaching students about their bodies, sex, relationships and sexually transmitted infections. The guidelines cover four different age groups.

According to the Times, the United Nations Population Fund -- one of the key donor agencies involved with the sex education program -- has withdrawn support and asked that its name be removed from published materials because of pressure from conservative groups. A UNFPA official said that the organization wants to change the publication to make it "more effective and adaptable by countries, so it may better serve countries as guidelines for use in national educational systems." A September 5 press release from UNFPA reaffirmed its support for comprehensive sexuality education as an essential component of efforts to protect the health and rights of young people, and said the agency will continue to cooperate with UNESCO in further fine-tuning and finalizing the guidelines on sexuality education.

Conservative and religious groups, mostly from the U.S., have attacked a June draft of the guidelines for encouraging discussions on condom use, masturbation and the statement that sexual abstinence is "only one of a range of choices available to young people" to prevent STIs and unintended pregnancies. The groups also have criticized the guidelines' assertion that "legal abortion performed under sterile conditions by medically trained personnel is safe." The guidelines encourage discussing "access to safe abortion and post-abortion care" and the "use and misuse of emergency contraception" with students ages 12 to 15.

The onslaught of criticism from conservative groups prompted UNESCO to remove the draft guidelines from its Web site, according to the Times. Sue Williams, a UNESCO spokesperson, said, "Unfortunately, the way the guidelines have been presented by certain media has provoked some fairly aggressive reactions, mainly in the form of virulent comment on conservative American Web sites." UNESCO defended the guidelines in press releases as being "evidence-informed and rights-based." Mark Richmond, UNESCO's global coordinator for HIV and AIDS and the director for educational priorities, said, "The document is not a curriculum," adding that the "main effort is to try to empower young people with knowledge that could actually save their lives" and "give them the opportunity for more informed choices than currently exist" (Erlanger, New York Times, 9/3).

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