The Problem

The lack of access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is a serious social problem for the majority of the world’s population. It is well known that rates of other social problems, such as unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and vulnerability to coercive relationships, decline when people have access to CSE. Though it is difficult to measure how many students receive formal or school-based CSE, there is data aplenty of the dangerous knowledge deficits that happen without CSE access. For example, UNESCO estimates that only 34 % of young people around the world can demonstrate accurate knowledge of HIV prevention and transmission.

It is only within the last two decades that the case for CSE as a human right, and not simply an instrument of risk reduction, has been popularized. International treaties (e.g., UN Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) recognize that all people have a right to accurate information about sex and sexuality because they have the right to make the best decisions for them.

UNESCO defines Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) as an age-appropriate, culturally relevant approach to teaching about sexuality and relationships by providing scientifically accurate, realistic, non-judgmental information. The United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have invested in research that supports the school and community-based implementation of CSE in all global regions. Despite this global commitment and the vast body of scientific research that supports it, CSE remains under-mandated, under-implemented, and overly controversial in most places. A few quick points provide a global snapshot of CSE access:

• • Global: There is very little data on the quality of or number of 10–14-year-old students receiving CSE, despite the fact that most of those students live in countries with CSE policy commitments.

• • USA: Since 2006, adolescent access to CSE has been on the decline. This decline is unsurprising, given that the share of schools providing sexual health education declined between 2000 and 2014.

• • European Union: European Union member states have differences in quality and frequency of CSE, with The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries hosting the highest quality programming and Eastern Europe consistently missing the mark.