ABSTRACT
Three principal parties are involved in decision to seek or to make available sex education to children: children, parents, and State. This chapter examines the rights of children to sex education under international human rights law with reference to these three parties. Sex education is seen as beginning of the end of childhood innocence — a first step to adulthood or, as some believes, to a corrupted or immoral understanding of sex and human relationships. Young individuals need sex education to minimise the negative consequences of sexual activity and thereby preserve their physical and psychosocial health. There are a number of rights which may be called upon as broadly supporting a child's independent choice to seek and obtain sex education. These can include the rights to life, dignity, privacy, education, and freedom of thought. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has strongly supported the interpretation of a duty on the part of State to educate adolescents about sex.
