Obligation to Provide Sexuality Education: Reviewing Women’s Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health under UN Human Rights Treaties

Abstract

ABSTRACTSexual and reproductive health is increasingly recognised under the international human rights framework, but women’s right to sexual and reproductive health is frequently undermined by service providers’ conscientious objections. This article contributes to another under-researched realm: some parents’ unwillingness to allow their children to engage in sexuality education. By analysing United Nations human rights treaties, this article argues that states have a positive obligation to provide sexuality education in order to realise women’s right to sexual and reproductive health. Given treaty bodies’ lack of explicit reference to parents’ conscientious objections against sexuality education, this article advances three approaches, which respond to conflicts between women’s right to sexual and reproductive health and parental rights, suggesting that states are left with little space to refuse the provision of sexuality education by citing parents’ conscientious objections.