The Human Rights Watch International Organization sends letter to South Korea on Human Rights and Sexuality Education.
South Korea had previously affirmed its stance on the human rights of LGBT people at the United Nations but then specifically excluded any mention whatsoever of homosexuality in their new sex education guidelines.
More below the fold.
The letter from the Human Rights Watch is in response to this and a few quotes follows. The full letter is available at the link at the top of the diary.
We write to follow our letter of May 3, 2015 in which we expressed concern over the announcement that the government of the Republic of Korea had instituted new sex education guidelines that specifically exclude any mention of homosexuality.
In our May letter, we expressed concern that the new policy discriminates against LGBT youth and violates their right to education, information, and health. We also believe that it violates South Korea’s international human rights commitments, and could be harmful to young people and negatively affect public health.
Human Rights Watch noted that the decision not to include homosexuality in the new sex education guidelines was discriminatory, and that the curriculum overall falls short of international standards.[2] We urge the government of the Republic of Korea to reverse this policy decision by:
- Immediately halting the roll-out of the new sex education guidelines
- Convening consultation sessions with civil society, health experts, and human rights experts to revise the guidelines and bring them in line with South Korea’s international obligations to protect the rights to information, education, and health for all persons without discrimination;
- Issuing an unambiguous statement affirming the rights of LGBT children in South Korea’s schools, including the obligation of school officials to protect LGBT students from harm and provide relevant and accurate information to them.
For more on why LGBT inclusive Sex Education is important please go
here.