The challenges of girls’ right to education: let’s talk about human rights-based sex education

Abstract

The United Nations human rights framework offers new ways of conceptualising sex education. Although none of the treaties explicitly refer to sex education, an analysis of the rights contained in the core treaties demonstrates that there is a positive obligation on the state to provide sex education to fulfil the human rights of girls and women. A human rights perspective offers a framework in which to address the challenges to delivery of sex education. It is argued that due to the significance of the human rights that are fulfilled by sex education it is proportionate to limit the role of religious and cultural norms in delivery of sex education.

Keywords:

• sex education
• right to education
• gender equality
• role of religion
• UN treaty bodies

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Sandy Fredman, Helen Taylor, Jaakko Kusomanen, Victoria Miyandazi, Richard Martin, Max Harris and Shreya Atrey for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. UN, The Millennium Development Report: 2015 (UN, 2015), 29, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev%20(July%201).pdf.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), General Comment No. 13: The Right to Education, UN Doc. E/C.12/1999/10 (1999), para. 1.

6. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Report to the Human Rights Commission (Girls' Right to Education) UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/45 (Geneva: UN, 2006), para. 99.

7. UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee), Concept Note on the Draft Recommendation on Girls'/Women’s Right to Education, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CEDAW/Pages/Womensrighttoeducation.aspx, para. 5.1.

8. Mac Darrow, ‘Master or Servant? Development Goals and Human Rights’, in The Millennium Development Goals and Human Rights, ed. Malcolm Langford, Andy Sumner, and Alicia Ely Yamin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014); Sandra Fredman, Jaakko Kuosmanen, and Meghan Campbell, ‘Transforming Equality: Making the SDGs Work for Women’, Ethics & International Affairs 30, no. 2 (2016): 177.

9. 1249 UNTS 13.

10. 993 UNTS 3, Article 13.

11. Naila Kabeer, ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal 1’, Gender & Development 13, no. 1 (2005): 13, 17.

12. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Report to the UN General Assembly (Sex Education) UN Doc. A/65/162 (Geneva: UN, 2010), para. 87(d).

13. CESCR, General Comment No. 22 on the Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health, UN Doc. E/C.12/2016/22, para. 25.

14. Ibid., para. 87(d).

15. Ibid., para. 63.

16. UNESCO Office in Brasilia, ‘Sexual Education’, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/brasilia/education/health-education-in-brazil/sexuality-education-in-brazil/.

17. UNESCO and UN Women, ‘Written Contribution to the General Discussion on Girls/Women’s Right to Education for the General Recommendation on Girls/Women’s Right to Education’, 12, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/WomensRightEducation/UNESCO_UNwomen.pdf.

18. UNFPA, ‘UNFPA Operational Guidance for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: A Focus on Human Rights and Gender’ (New York: UN, 2014), 10–15.

19. Heather D. Boonstra, ‘Advancing Sexuality Education in Developing Countries: Evidence and Implications’, Guttmacher Policy Review 14, no. 3 (Summer 2011).

20. UNFPA, ‘Sex Education Comes to Kyrgyzstan’, 6 August 2015, http://www.unfpa.org/news/sexuality-education-comes-kyrgyzstan.

21. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 57.

22. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee), General Comment No. 3: HIV/AIDS and the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/2003/3 (2003), para. 16; International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), ‘Over-Protected and Under-Served: A Multi-Country Study on Legal Barriers to Young People’s Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health: UK’ (2014), 17, http://www.ippf.org/sites/default/files/ippf_coram_uk_report_web.pdf.

23. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 55.

24. Ibid., para. 47; IPPF, UK, 14.

25. IPPF, ‘Over-Protected and Under-Served: A Multi-Country Study on Legal Barriers to Young People’s Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health: El Salvador’ (2014), 14, http://www.ippf.org/sites/default/files/ippf_coram_el_salvador_report_eng_web.pdf; IPPF, ‘Over-Protected and Under-Served: A Multi-Country Study on Legal Barriers to Young People’s Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health: Senegal’ (2014), 15, http://www.ippf.org/sites/default/files/ippf_coram_senegal_report_eng_web.pdf; ‘Preventing Teen Pregnancy with Sex Education in Chile’, http://www.ippf.org/our-work/stories/volunteers/Preventing-Teen-Pregnancy-Sex-Education-Chile.

26. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 15.

27. Ibid., para. 65.

28. IPPF, Senegal, 15.

29. Susanne Heuck and Jessica Mowles, ‘Love Your Neighbour, But Not Too Much: Political and Religious Involvement in Sex Education within Polish Public School’, Human in Action, http://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledgebase/214-love-your-neighbor-but-not-too-much-political-and-religious-involvement-in-sex-education-within-polish-public-schools.

30. Ibid.

31. Julie Beck, ‘When Sex Ed Discusses Gender Inequality, Sex Gets Safer’, The Atlantic, 27 April 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/when-sex-ed-teaches-gender-inequality-sex-gets-safer/391460/.

32. John Delamter, ‘Gender Equity in Formal Sexuality Education’, in Handbook for Achieving Gender Equity through Education, ed. Sue Klein et al., 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2007), 415.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. IPPF, UK; IPPF, Senegal; IPPF, El Salvador.

36. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 5.

37. Pete Baklinski, ‘Christian Private School Rejects Wynne’s Sex-Ed as “Perverse”’, 14 July 2015, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/christian-private-school-rejects-wynnes-sex-ed-as-perverse.

38. IPPF, UK; IPPF, Senegal; IPPF, El Salvador.

39. IPPF, UK, 20.

40. Ibid.

41. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Report to the Human Rights Commission (Girls’ Education) UN Doc. E/CN.4/2004/45 (Geneva: UN, 2004), para. 37.

42. IPPF, Senegal, 16.

43. IPPF, El Salvador, 15.

44. Rebecca Davis, ‘Analysis: When Schoolgirls Fall Pregnant, Why Don’t We Talk More about Rape?’, Daily Maverick, 23 January 2015, http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-01-23-analysis-when-schoolgirls-fall-pregnant-why-dont-we-talk-more-about-rape/#.VcNXpDbbLIU.

45. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Girl's’ Education, para. 78.

46. Ibid., paras 37 and 39.

47. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 42.

48. Ibid., para. 45.

49. Heuck and Mowles, ‘Love Your Neighbour, But Not Too Much’.

50. IPPF, UK.

51. Delamter, ‘Gender Equity in Formal Sexuality Education’, 412.

52. UNFPA, ‘The Evaluation of Comprehensive Sexuality Education Programmes: A Focus on the Gender and Empowerment Outcomes’ (New York: UNFPA, 2015), http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/UNFPAEvaluationWEB4.pdf.

53. IPPF, UK, 14.

54. Ibid., 14.

55. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 76.

56. See for example, Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (1997) 6 SCC 241 (Indian Supreme Court).

57. Judith Resnik, ‘Comparative (In)equalities: CEDAW, the Jurisdiction of Gender and the Heterogeneity of Transnational Law Production’, International Journal of Constitutional Law 10, no. 2 (2012): 531, 542.

58. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 88(a).

59. CESCR, General Comment No. 3: The Nature of the State Parties’ Obligations, UN Doc. E/1991/23.

60. 1577 UNTS 3.

61. Fareda Banda, ‘Article 10’, in The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: A Commentary, ed. Marsha A. Freeman, Christine Chinkin, and Beate Rudolf (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 269.

62. CRC Committee, General Comment No. 4: Adolescent Health and Development, UN Doc. CRC/GC/2003/4 (2003), para. 31.

63. Wenche Barth Eide, Commentary on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 24: The Right to Health (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2005), 43–6.

64. 999 UNTS 171, Article 6.

65. A/RES/61/106, Article 10.

66. UN HRC, General Comment No. 6: The Right to Life, UN Doc. CCPR/C/GC/6 (1982), para. 5.

67. CEDAW, Article 12.

68. ICESCR, Article 12

69. CPRD, Article 25.

70. CESCR, General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4 (2000), para. 5.

71. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 15.

72. UN, The Millennium Development Report: 2015, 45.

73. UNESCO, School-Based Sexuality Education Programmes in Six Countries (Paris: UNESCO, 2011), 15, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002116/211604e.pdf.

74. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 15.

75. CESCR, General Comment No. 22, para. 28.

76. WHO, ‘Fact Sheet No. 364: Adolescent Pregnancy’ (September 2014), http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs364/en/.

77. Ibid.

78. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Report to the UN General Assembly (Maternal Mortality) UN Doc. A/61/338 (Geneva: UN, 2006), para. 8.

79. WHO, ‘Fact Sheet No. 388 Preventing Unsafe Abortion’ (July 2015), http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs388/en/.

80. Ibid.

81. WHO, ‘Adolescent Pregnancy’.

82. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, paras 13, 14 and 30.

83. Victoria Law Reform, ‘Inquiry into Sexting’ (Parliamentary Paper No. 230, Session 2010–2013, 21, 41, 2013).

84. Ibid.

85. Canadian Paediatric Society, ‘Sexting: Keeping Teens Safe and Responsible in a Technically Savvy World’ (February 2014), http://www.cps.ca/documents/position/sexting.

86. Victoria Law Reform, ‘Inquiry into Sexting’, 42.

87. Laura Hilly, ‘UK Efforts to Criminalize Revenge Porn: Not a Scandal, but a Sex Crime’, OxHRH Blog, 31 October 2014, http://humanrights.dev3.oneltd.eu/uk-efforts-to-criminalize-revenge-porn-not-a-scandal-but-a-sex-crime/.

88. CESCR, General Comment No. 13, para. 1.

89. CRC Committee, General Comment No. 1: The Aims of Education, UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/2001/1, (2001), para. 1.

90. Ibid., para. 2.

91. CEDAW Committee, Concept Note, para. 3.4.

92. Ibid., para. 5.3.8.

93. Centre for Reproductive Rights, ‘Submission for Half-Day of General Discussion and Draft General Recommendation on the Right to Education’ (2014), 2, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/WomensRightEducation/CenterForReproductiveRightsContribution.pdf.

94. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 17.

95. Audrey R. Chapman, ‘Towards an Understanding of the Right to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific Progress and its Applications’, Journal of Human Rights 8, no. 1 (2009): 1.

96. CESCR, General Comment No. 21: The Right to Take Part in Cultural Life, UN Doc. E/C.12/GC/21 (2009), para. 18.

97. CEDAW Committee, General Comment No. 28: Of Core Obligations under Article 2 of CEDAW, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/28 (2010).

98. CEDAW, Article 3.

99. CEDAW, Article 5(a).

100. Ibid; CESCR, General Comment No 16: The Equal Right of Men and Women to the Enjoyment of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN Doc. E/C.12/2005/4 (2005), para. 7.

101. Ibid.

102. Ibid.

103. HRC, General Comment No. 26: Article 3 (The Equality of Rights between Men and Women), UN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.10 (2001), para. 3.

104. CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No. 28, para. 16.

105. CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No. 25: Temporary Special Measures, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/24 (2004), para. 8.

106. Ibid.

107. CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No. 28, para. 22.

108. CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No. 25, para. 9.

109. Simone Cusack and Lisa Pusey, ‘CEDAW and the Rights to Equality and Non-Discrimination’, Melbourne Journal of International Law 14 (2013): 54, 63.

110. Ibid; Andrew Byrnes, ‘Article 1’, in The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: A Commentary, ed. Marsha A. Freeman, Chrstine Chinkin, and Beate Rudolf (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 56.

111. Sandra Fredman, Discrimination Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2011), Chapter 1.

112. Sandra Fredman and Beth Goldblatt, ‘Discussion Paper: Gender Equality and Human Rights for Progress of the World's Women 2015–2016’ (Geneva: UN Women, 2015), 12.

113. IPPF, El Salvador, 22.

114. Victoria Law Reform, ‘Inquiry into Sexting’.

115. IPPF, El Salvador, 12; IPPF, Senegal, 10–13. See also, Inga Winkler and Virginia Roaf, ‘Bringing the Bloody Dirty Linen Out of the Closet: Menstrual Hygiene as a Priority for Achieving Gender Equality’, Cardozo Journal of the Law and Gender 1 (2015): 21.

116. Ibid.

117. IPPF, Senegal 16–19; IPPF, UK, 35–8.

118. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 63.

119. Ibid., paras 16 and 71.

120. CEDAW Committee, ‘Statement of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: Beyond 2014 ICPD Review’ (February 2014), Fifty-Seventh Session.

121. ICCPR, Article 6.

122. CEDAW Article 12; ICESCR Article 13.

123. ICESCR, Article 9.

124. ICESCR, Article 6 and 11. See also World Bank, Voice and Agency: Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014).

125. CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No. 19: Violence against Women, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/19 (1992).

126. UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Report to the Human Rights Council (Twenty Years) UN Doc. A/HRC/26/38 (Geneva: UN, 2014), para. 57.

127. Ibid.

128. Ibid., para. 60.

129. CEDAW Committee, ‘Concluding Observations: Spain’, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/ESP/CO/7-8 (2015), paras 26-7; CEDAW Committee and CRC Committee, General Recommendation No. 31: On Harmful Practices, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/31 (2014), para. 68.

130. CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No 19; CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No 28, para. 21; CEDAW Committee, ‘Concluding Observations: St Vincent's and Grenadines’, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/VCT/4-8 (2015), para. 29(b).

131. A.S. v. Hungary, CEDAW/C/36/D/4/2004; CEDAW Committee, ‘Prohibitions on Contraception in the Philippines’, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/OP.8./PHL/1 (2015).

132. As examples see CESCR, ‘Concluding Observations: Chile’, UN Doc. E/C.12/CHL/CO/4 (2015), para. 29; CESCR, ‘Concluding Observations: Thailand’, UN Doc. E/C.12/THA/CO/1 (2015), para. 30; CRC Committee, ‘Concluding Observations: Ethiopia’, UN Doc. CRC/C/ETH/CO/4-5 (2015), para. 24; CRC Committee, ‘Concluding Observations: Mexico’, UN Doc. CRC/C/MEX/CO/4-5 (2015), para. 50; HRC, ‘Concluding Observations: San Marino’, UN Doc. CCPR/C/SMR/CO/3 (2015), paras 14–15.

133. CESCR, ‘Concluding Observations: Uganda’, UN Doc. E/C.12/UGA/CO/1 (2015), para. 35.

134. CRC Committee, ‘Concluding Observations: Ethiopia’, para. 59.

135. OHCHR, ‘Strengthening the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies’ (2012), http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/HRTD/docs/HCReportTBStrengthening.pdf.

136. ICESCR, Article 22; CRC, Article 45(a); CRPD. Article 32. See also, Meghan Campbell, ‘The Development of the International Duty to Co-operation’ (on file).

137. Christian Education South Africa v. Minister of Education (CCT4/00) [2000] ZACC 11, paras 33–4.

138. Manfred Nowak, UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Oxford: OUP, 1993), 325.

139. CEDAW, Article 5. See also Frances Raday, ‘Traditionalist Religious and Cultural Challengers-International and Constitutional Human Rights Responses’, Israel Law Review 14 (2008): 408.

140. CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No. 31; CESCR, General Comment No. 21: The Right of Everyone to Take Part in Cultural Life, UN Doc. E/C.12/GC/21 (2009), para. 18; CRC Committee, General Comment No. 18: Harmful Practices, UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/18 (2015).

141. CESCR, General Comment No. 21, para. 19.

142. CEDAW Committee, General Recommendation No. 31, para. 6.

143. ICCPR, Article 18(4); ICESCR, Article 13(4); CRC, Article 14.

144. ICESCR, Article 13(3).

145. CESCR, General Comments No. 13, paras 4–5.

146. UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Report to the Human Rights Council (School Education) UN Doc. A/HRC/16/53 (Geneva: UN, 2011), para. 55.

147. Application No. 319/08 (Admissibility).

148. Ibid., 16.

149. Ibid., 7.

150. Ibid., 15.

151. UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, School Education, para. 38.

152. CRC Committee, General Comment No. 8: The Right of the Child to Protection from Corporal Punishment and Another Cruel or Degrading Forms of Punishment, UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/8 (2006), para. 29.

153. Christian Education South Africa v. Minister of Education, para. 52.

154. R v. Secretary of State for Education and Employment and Other (Respondents) ex parte Williamson (Appellant) and others [2005] UKHL 15, para. 49.

155. Ibid., para. 86 per Lady Hale.

156. Christian Education South Africa v. Minister of Education, para. 50.

157. Ibid., para. 47.

158. UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Report to the Human Rights Council (Effort to Protect and Promote) UN Doc. A/65/207 (Geneva: UN, 2010), para. 69.

159. UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Report to the Human Rights Council (Equality Between Men and Women) UN Doc. A/68/290 (Geneva: UN, 2011), para. 55.

160. UNFPA, Operational Guide, 19-21; UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sex Education, para. 87(h).

161. Ibid.

162. Ibid; Nicole Haberland, ‘The Case for Addressing Gender and Power in Sexuality and HIV Education’, International Perspective on Sexual and Reproductive Health 41, no. 1 (2015): 311.

163. CESCR, General Comment No. 13, para. 49.

164. Elaine Unterhalter, ‘Measuring Education for MDGs: Reflections on Targets, Indicators and a Post-2015 Framework’, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 15, no. 2–3 (2014): 176.

165. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Report to the UN General Assembly (Public–Private Partnerships) UN Doc. A/70/342 (Geneva: UN, 2015).

166. Helen Taylor, Laura Hilly, and Meghan Campbell, ‘Background Paper to Public–Private Partnerships’, http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Background-Paper1.pdf.

167. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Public–Private Partnerships, para. 82.

168. Ibid., para. 94.