A Welsh politician is calling on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to take back its controversial sex education guidelines.
Welsh politician Laura Anne Jones, shadow minister for education in Wales’ regional government and member of the Conservative party, has challenged the WHO to take down its guidelines for sex education in Europe.
The Telegraph reports that in recent statements she called on the WHO “to rescind the advice immediately,” and for the Welsh government to “distance themselves” from the “frankly disturbing” WHO guidance for sex education.
Jones added:
We must stop this pushing of harmful gender ideology into sex education in Wales and the UK, with immediate effect. The WHO needs to rescind the advice immediately.
Sex education has been a politically hot topic in the UK since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called on the government in March to investigate what was being taught about sex and sexuality in his country’s schools—this, four years after his party had instituted mandatory sex education.
Sunak’s cry of alarm followed an investigation by The Daily Telegraph that shed light on classes in which young children are educated on masturbation, anal sex, and “100 genders.”
In September 2022, the devolved Welsh government, which has education competencies, debuted its new Relationship and Sex Education curriculum, required for all students age seven and above. It was quickly challenged in court by a group of concerned parents as exclusive of the traditional family and sexual values, but the claimants lost their case. They have vowed to keep fighting.
In April, the Safe Schools Alliance, a grassroots organisation fighting against sexualising of children and the teaching of gender ideology in schools, announced in a press release that it had conducted a review of the sex education standards documents produced by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the WHO. They condemned the documents as overly sexualising children and exposing them to the risk of grooming by paedophiles, and encouraging sexual activity among adolescents while marginalising the role of parents and traditional values. Additionally, the Safe Schools Alliance group found that the Wales curriculum was based on the guidelines.
“We have already seen how this approach has played out in Wales, with parents’ concerns comprehensively sidelined in the interests of a holistic sexuality education that influences all aspects of the child’s development,” the organisation said.
According to The Telegraph, the WHO’s most recent guidelines on sex education for Europe, published in 2010, were cited in a 2017 report by Cardiff University entitled “Informing the Future of the Sex and Relationships Curriculum in Wales.” The report was commissioned by Welsh ministers, but the education ministry did not adopt all of the recommendations in it.
The WHO’s guidelines propose “holistic sexuality education”—as opposed to “abstinence only” and “comprehensive sex education”—as offering “unbiased” and “scientifically correct” information on “all aspects of sexuality” while encouraging children to pursue “sexual growth and development.”
It also advocates for sex education from birth.
The text reads:
From birth, babies learn the value and pleasure of bodily contact, warmth and intimacy. Soon after that, they learn what is ‘clean’ and what is ‘dirty’. In other words, they are engaging in sexuality education.
Four- to six-year-olds need to consolidate their “gender identity” while seven-year-olds should develop “an understanding of ‘acceptable sex’ (mutually consensual, voluntary, equal, age-appropriate, context-appropriate, and self-respecting)” as well as learn about masturbation.
Tanya Carter, a spokeswoman for Safe Schools Alliance, demanded an “urgent enquiry” into any link between “RSE curriculum in this country” and the sexual education guidance coming from UN organisations such as the WHO and UNESCO, The Telegraph reported.
“An urgent inquiry is needed into how this ideology … has come to influence so much public thinking,” Ms. Carter added.
A WHO spokesman told The Telegraph the organisation stands by its guidance and will keep it accessible.
