Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Zahra Ameri ¹
• Ahmad Khosravi ²
• masoumeh Ameri ³

¹ Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Humanities, University of Bojnord, Bojnord, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Birjand, Birjand, Iran

³ Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Sciences, Gonabad Higher Education Complex, , Gonabad, Iran

Abstract

Introduction

The right to sexual education is an essential right for maintaining human dignity, independence, and individual value. It is also necessary for realizing and benefiting from other rights, including the right to health. Ensuring the fulfillment of this right is the responsibility of duty-bearers, who must meet their obligations so that individuals can benefit from it. Parents play an important role in this area; however, the primary responsibility, as part of the broader right to education, lies with the government. In Iranian society, as an example of a traditional and religious context, sexual education has long been surrounded by ambiguity. From a legal perspective, the government’s responsibility in this regard faces many challenges. In this respect, the current study aimed to explain the reasons for recognizing sexual education as a right, examining its status within both international documents and domestic laws in Iran. The innovative contribution of this research lies in its comprehensive review, analysis, and evaluation of domestic documents and laws related to sexual education in Iran. The central research question is as follows: How can the government, as the primary guardian of second-generation human rights, create the conditions necessary for realizing the right to sexual education for children and adolescents in Iran?

Literature Review

A review of existing studies in Iran shows that research on children’s sexual education has been conducted primarily from sociological and psychological perspectives. Within the legal framework, most studies focus specifically on child sexual abuse. One of the few articles that examines the child’s right to education with an emphasis on sex education reviews general laws governing education and, drawing on constitutional principles, highlights the government’s responsibility to develop comprehensive sex education content. It further emphasizes the role of the media, schools, and civil society organizations in presenting such content, and the role of families in its implementation. In “Jurisprudential Review of Children’s Sex Education With Emphasis on the 2030 Document of UNESCO,” Farahzadi et al. (2024) conducted a comparative study on this issue, analyzing UNESCO documents alongside Islamic jurisprudence and law. Their put a particular emphasis on the UNESCO 2030 Agenda; however, their study did not address national laws and regulations.

Materials and Methods

As a theoretical inquiry, the present study employed a descriptive–analytical method. Moreover, the library research was used to collect the data from various documents, books, and articles.

Results and Discussion

The issue of sex education and governments’ obligations to provide it has been emphasized in various international documents and recommendations. However, an analytical review of these documents reveals the emergence of a particular approach to sex education within the global legal system. Most of these documents emphasize the provision of school-based training to address AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, with the aim of equipping young people with essential knowledge before engaging in sexual activity. The focus is consistently on raising individual awareness, regardless of the type of sexual activity, while less attention is given to safeguarding the conditions of interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, many of these documents stress the education of children and adolescents in making free choices about sexual activity, often without reference to the legal or Sharia-based requirements of marriage. They recommend that sex education begin at the elementary level and continue throughout both formal and informal education. Most of these international documents also recognize premarital sexual relations, focusing primarily on health and physical well-being in sexual interactions—an approach that conflicts with the religious foundations of systems such as Iran’s. At the domestic level, it is clear that Iran’s legal system faces serious shortcomings in this area. Owing to traditional social norms, open discussion of sexual issues remains limited. Most existing regulations focus on the general education of children and adolescents about family life, while explicit reference to sex education is rare. Nevertheless, there remains a pressing need to provide children and adolescents with appropriate education on sexual matters.

Conclusion

In Iran, the government should take serious action on the crucial issue of sexual education for children and adolescents by employing various mechanisms in two main areas: discourse creation and operational empowerment. The first step toward achieving this goal is to foster a culture within families that breaks the taboo surrounding sex education. If the government seeks to implement teachings that align with national and religious values, it must move beyond silence and instead uphold the right to sexual education in accordance with Islamic standards. Within this framework, the initial priority is to identify the responsible institutions tasked with providing and supervising the implementation of education. Formal education programs should serve as the foundation. At this stage, it is essential to design and implement processes for developing national sex education curricula that are both scientifically informed and socially acceptable, tailored to the developmental capacities of children at different educational levels. The next step is training and supporting educators and health professionals. The government, civil society organizations, and health providers should invest in equipping teachers, schools, and other educational actors with the necessary resources to deliver effective programs. A further key step is the design and implementation of structured, responsive evaluation systems to monitor and adjust sex education programs, ensuring their efficiency and effectiveness. Finally, there are considerable differences between international standards and the normative values upheld in Iran. It is thus necessary to approach global agreements with caution. Officials should avoid endorsing ambiguous or broadly interpretable documents. Instead, Iran should adopt a conditional approach, signing international agreements and documents only when they can be adapted to its cultural and social context.

Keywords

• Sex Education
• Sex Literacy
• Right to Health
• Right to Education

Main Subjects

• Public Law