In these times of resurgent threats to women’s rights and gender equality, we must redouble our efforts to protect women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Among the international and European legal instruments that protect these rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) guarantees women’s rights to decide freely and responsibly about the number and spacing of their children and to have access to information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights. Sexual and reproductive health and rights are fundamentally linked to the enjoyment of many other human rights, as recently by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. As widely illustrated by the case-law and guidelines of human rights bodies, sexual and reproductive health is often the context in which human rights are violated, including the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, but also the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment and the right to private life.

The right to be free from discrimination on grounds of sex or gender is also at stake, as this right is breached when reproductive health services that only women require are not provided. Access to sexual and reproductive rights is a precondition for the realisation of other human rights, including in the fields of education and employment. At the same time, impediments in access to sexual and reproductive health services are the result of violations of other human rights, not least the long-standing discrimination and harmful gender stereotyping against women that still need to be fully eradicated in Europe. I have expressed concern at the development in recent years of regressive trends and attempts to exert control over women’s bodies and sexuality which could further hamper women’s access to these rights and endanger progress achieved so far in the field of gender equality. The pivotal role of access to sexuality education Teaching sexuality education to all boys and girls in schools is essential to guarantee women’s sexual and reproductive rights and is a full component of the rights to education and to health. Both the and the have stressed that adolescents should have access to appropriate and objective information on sexual and reproductive issues, including family planning, contraception and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, as part of the ordinary school curriculum and provided without discrimination on any ground. Echolink receiver software upgrade.

However, sexuality education at school has been met with strong resistance from some parents and other stakeholders. Lcd tv repair ebook pdf. In some places, parents can decide to exempt their children from sexuality education classes. Those teaching sexuality education sometimes lack the necessary training and knowledge. In other cases, sexuality education teaching can contain misleading information and value judgements, with problems including the stigmatisation of homosexuality or abortion by young girls.