SEXUAL HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS A legal and ... - The ICHRP

prevention 713 , as well as creating understanding of when and how to seek treatment or other
forms of assistance for ill health, abuse, or other sexuality-related concerns.
As a key component of effective prevention of sexual ill health, sexuality education
recognizes that a significant amount of health promotion occurs outside of health care
services and health systems per se. As such, it is both less expensive than much health care,
in importantly highlights self-care through support for the conditions of empowerment. Sex
education, like all health education, promotes the values of well-being and autonomy.
Failures to develop and deliver accurate and comprehensive sexuality information, therefore,
not only contribute to ill health, unwanted pregnancies, exposure and transmission of STI’s,
and increased rates of HIV infection, but also contributes to reduced use of services and
treatment for STI’s and HIV as well as reduced access to appropriate contraception and
family planning services and services responding to pregnancy and complications of unsafe
abortion.
Accessible and good quality sexuality education can contribute to breaking silences over
sexual violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, and inspire those who suffer from sexual
dysfunction to seek assistance. Furthermore, sexuality education can serve as an important
tool for equality and dignity in society -- when presented in a non-discriminatory and nonjudgmental
manner -- it can challenge gender stereotypes and fearful or negative attitudes
towards sexuality in general and towards those who engage in non-conforming, consensual
sexual practices in particular. 714
Barriers in law or practice of the state to implementing comprehensive sexuality education,
therefore, contribute to inequality, violence and exclusion as well as to higher incidence of
otherwise preventable STIs, unwanted pregnancies, abortion and unsafe abortion in particular
and other complications. Often state law or policy exclude specific topics or persons from
sexuality education as part of a larger policy of sex or gender stereotyping, or imposition of
particular religious or cultural beliefs about the intrinsic need of sexual activity to be
legitimized by reproduction, and the specific obligation of girls or women to submit to
husbands in regard to sexual decision–making, or the ‘sinfulness’ of same sex behaviour or
sex outside of marriage. These exclusions run counter to evidence-based evaluations of
effective sexuality education as well as conflict with basic rights protections for education.
Moreover, sexuality education should not replicate gender stereotyped understandings of
sexual behaviour in the name of promoting respectful behaviours, such that girls are taught
that their duty is to be chaste in the face of the ‘natural’ lust of boys.
Comprehensive sexuality education may include information and ideas regarding the
effective use of contraception, protection against HIV, protections against sexual violence,
understanding of sexual orientation and information on the diversity of sexual practices in
society. This form of education is associated with better health outcomes for girls and
women, as well as sexual minority populations. 715 Comprehensive sexuality education
requires strong protections in the law for freedoms of expression, education and the right to
713 Education must of course be paired with access to services and resources necessary to act on the knowledge
gained, which includes links to other preventive systems, as relevant, such as HPV vaccine and cervical
cancer screening
714 From Westeson, European region pp. 112 passim
715 need cite from WHO study on sexual health here
152