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By Shobha Shukla
“Though comprehensive sexuality education is such a taboo, it is an important aspect of adolescents, children, and young people’s well-being. However, we have so many barriers to advancing comprehensive sexuality education. We also know that every child, adolescent, and young person, regardless of who they are and where they live, deserves an opportunity to learn and develop skills that will enable them to make safe and confident choices about their lives – and comprehensive sexuality education is one such life skill,” said Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, Deputy Executive Director, The Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW).
“As advocates for sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice, one of our key agendas has been to ensure that we provide access to comprehensive sexuality education within the education ecosystem. We see teachers as one crucial stakeholder group, and Asia Pacific Multistakeholder Dialogue was pinning on the teachers, and how teachers can be good enablers to provide comprehensive sexuality education,” Sai added. This dialogue was organised by ARROW with UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA, Education International, SDG-4 Youth and Student Network, Y-PEER Asia Pacific, and partners.
“Global research also says that teachers are the most important school-related factor affecting students’ learning. Evidence also shows that addressing learners’ health, well-being, and education improves school education, school attendance, retention, and learning quality. So, just providing comprehensive sexuality education not only improves the life skills but also it improves the learning capabilities across other learning arenas and that is the evidence that we have with regards to comprehensive sexuality education,” explained Sai, while delivering the opening address at SHE & Rights session held before the largest family planning conference (International Conference on Family Planning or ICFP 2025) opens in Bogota, Colombia.
“This SHE & Rights (Sexual Health with Equity & Rights) session was held on the theme: It is time for accountability and action after UNGA High Level Meeting around Beijing+30,” said Shobha Shukla, CNS Executive Director and Host of SHE & Rights.
Teachers are unique and essential stakeholders for advancing CSE
“This Asia Pacific multistakeholder dialogue on comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) was rightly titled as transforming teachers and teaching for adolescent health, well-being and gender equality. Although ARROW has organised such meetings every 2 years since 2018, this year’s meet was unique because it brought 20 governments together (and Ministries of Education officials) from South Asian and South-East Asian region. Over 160 people from civil society, youth, academicians, government officials from ministries of education and others came together in this meet. This was already a milestone by itself to have so many ministries of education officials come together to discuss what is important to advance adolescent health and well-being – and comprehensive sexuality education definitely came up as one crucial pivot,” said Sai of ARROW.
“One of the recommendations called on investing in high quality and inclusive pre- and in-service teacher training for comprehensive sexuality education. We are not only talking about students’ curricula, which is also very important, and that is the agenda that we are all pushing forward, but in addition to students’ curricula we are also talking about teachers pre- and in-service teacher training curricula which should mandatorily include comprehensive sexuality education,” said Sai.
“As a feminist and a teacher, I am so very happy that the issue of the well-being of teachers has been raised. I think this is the first meeting where my community has been recognised, their concerns and interests have been recognised. I stand with you,” said Dr Pam Rajput, Professor Emeritus and Founder, Department cum Centre for Women’s Studies and Development, Panjab University, India, and a renowned academic and feminist leader.
Invest more in stronger education system and teacher trainings
“We also advocated for stronger education system policies and investments in teacher training so that they can promote adolescent health and adolescent well-being. We also talked about the meaningful inclusion of youth, adolescents, and teachers themselves in the development of pre-service and in-service training curricula because when the training curricula of the teachers is being developed there needs to be consultations of the teachers themselves and there also needs to be the consultation of youth and adolescents into such curricula. This was also one of the recommendations that came out of this technical convening,” said Sai of ARROW.
“We also talked about how whole school and gender transformative approaches, which will connect curricula, learning environment and well-being, need to be included so that a whole school approach and a gender transformative approach is included in teacher training. Another important discussion at this technical convening was around if we are taking care of teachers’ psychosocial health and well-being because teachers’ health and well-being also result in students’ health and well-being. So, we cannot just look at a very extractive way of ‘how we need to provide comprehensive sexuality education to students’ irrespective of what is the state of the teachers. Are the teachers having the right resources? Are the teachers having the right education materials? Are the teachers in the first place having proper facilities for them to be in a well-being status for them to provide comprehensive sexuality education?” concluded Sai.
Engaging youth is critical cog-in-the-wheel to advance CSE
“From the Asia Pacific regional multistakeholder dialogue on comprehensive sexuality education, youth voice echoed clearly that we need comprehensive sexuality education that is inclusive, right spaced and adaptable to our diverse realities. Even today, many young people still face stigma, lack of access and misinformation when it comes to sexual and reproductive health. So, without addressing these barriers, SDG-3 and SDG-5, will remain out of reach,” said Zuzan of Y-PEER Laos and Y-PEER Asia Pacific Centre.
“Teachers are not just knowledge providers but role models who can inspire values of equality, respect and empathy in the next generation. Equipping teacher with the right training mean equipping adults with a skill to think critically, to make informed choices and to treat other with respect and dignity,” said Zuzan.
“Young people are asking for not just to be seen as beneficiary but to be recognised as co-creator, partner and decision maker in shaping our own future. Youth participation should go beyond consultation. Young people must be a part of designing, implementing and monitoring programmes of comprehensive sexuality education. This means establishing mechanisms for youth-led accountability such as youth advisory roles, comprehensive sexuality education monitoring committees and intergenerational dialogues that allow feedback to reach policy making. Because accountability is not only about tracking progress, but also about sharing power and trust with young people,” added Zuzan of Y-PEER. “Looking ahead, accountability must mean more than just tracking promises – it must mean resourcing and implementing them.”
80th UNGA High-Level Meeting re: Beijing+30
“80th United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting was held on 22nd September 2025 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 4th World Conference on Women (where Beijing Declaration 1995 was adopted along with its Platform for Action). The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is the most ambitious global political commitment on women’s rights ever achieved. It affirmed that the rights of women and girls are not separate, secondary, or negotiable – they are human rights,” said Shobha Shukla who was the Lead Discussant for SDG-3 at the intergovernmental United Nations High Level Political Forum 2025.
“Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action has helped to power advances in some critical areas — legal protection, political participation, education, maternal mortality, recognizing the need to tackle violence against women as a global priority, and more. But progress has been slow and uneven, and no nation has achieved full equality for women and girls and gender diverse peoples,” said Shobha Shukla of CNS and host of SHE & Rights.
“At 80th UN General Assembly this year, there were attempts made by USA to torpedo gender equality and human right to health. USA government categorically said at UN High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health (on 25th September 2025) that it does not recognise constitutional or international right to abortion,” said Shobha Shukla. “We must remember that UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Health Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng has stated in SHE & Rights that gender equality and right to health are fundamental human rights – and non-negotiable. UN ECOSOC adoption by consensus to revitalise the largest gathering on gender equality (UN Commission on the Status of Women or CSW) at UNGA gives us hope too.”
Fos Feminista also serves as co-convener of the Women’s Rights Caucus (WRC), a global self-organized feminist space with more than 800 groups and individuals that engages with the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) annually.
“CSW revitalisation process is an effort by the UN to strengthen the mandate of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). We put out an advocacy brief that made 3 clear demands,” said Shiphrah Belonguel, Global Advocacy Officer, Fòs Feminista (International Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice – SRHRJ). Fos Feminista also serves as co-convener of Women’s Rights Caucus (WRC), a global self-organised feminist space that engages with CSW process.
Shiphrah lists out the 3 key asks
- Defending and strengthening the mandate of the CSW as a robust normative platform for gender equality.
- Ensuring that the agreed conclusions that come out of the process remain a central and ambitious normative framework, reaffirming member states’ commitments to the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action, and
- Safeguarding civil society participation and preventing any rollback of civic space.
“So, demand-3 has been a particularly contentious point of advocacy especially with several member states who have pushed back against institutionalising practices related to civil society participation, such as the civil society town hall. Since our collective advocacy, the revitalisation resolution has already been adopted within the framework of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC),” said Shiphrah of Fos Feminista. “Starting from the 70th CSW session in 2026, we will be seeing High Level Meetings on violence against women organised.
Rising anti-rights and anti-gender pushbacks threaten gender equality and the right to health
“It is also important to contextualize all of this – like all of these processes that are happening in the UN helps us understand how governments are pushing gender equality. We have seen that during the UN High Level Meeting, some are twisting gender equality language to push for more pronatalist agenda framing women’s lives only through the lens of fertility and population. And we know that’s deeply dangerous,” said Shiphrah of Fos Feminista.
“When we get to ICFP 2025, we need to be clear. We need to come together as a community and really think through and about how family planning is being tied to ‘panic around fertility crisis’ or demographic panics. We have to insist as a community of SRHR advocates that women’s rights, bodily autonomy and reproductive justice are not negotiable – and they will always be integral to any family planning programming and activities,” rightly added Shiphrah. “For now, our priority is to keep feminist movements inside these processes and monitoring them and disrupting as necessary, making sure that UN reform does not hollow out civil society space and does not sideline gender and human rights, but elevates them.”
Agrees Dr Pam Rajput, noted feminist leader: “We hope that the young leaders will take more responsibility to see to it that what we have gained at least we do not regress upon in terms of gender equality. If we are not progressing, we must not regress – and that our rights whether they are sexual and reproductive health and rights or SRHR (which are among the agreed conclusions from UN CSW process) are protected. If we undermine SRHR then we go back on agreed conclusions, and it would mean giving up on all our struggles, all our rights.”
This SHE & Rights session marks over 2 years of Gaza genocide.
“We have to highlight what is the point of having the international court of justice? What is the point of having international statute, or International Criminal Court as you call it? We saw what happened in Gaza, Palestine, and what women suffered through a genocide. We saw how women suffered during Ukraine and Russia war. Court came out with a judgment that genocide was committed – but what happened since then? This is almost like making a mockery, but the bigger question mark is on the whole UN system for that matter,” said Dr Pam Rajput, who has attended every UN CSW since 1993.
“We are demanding that next UN Secretary General to be a woman, but the question is will that woman be free of the forces which are so regressive, and which are taking us backwards on gender equality, human rights and justice?” asks Dr Pam Rajput.
“We cannot lose what we have achieved in terms of gender equality and human rights. I still have unflinching hope that we shall overcome, and we must work towards that. I stand by you,” said Dr Rajput.
Largest global family planning conference of 2025
“The International Conference on Family Planning or #ICFP2025 will be organised from 1st to 6th November. Pre-conference sessions (like on youth, comprehensive sexuality education, and other issues) would be held on 1st-2nd November,” said Dina Chaerani, Host of Sex O’clock News, Family Planning News Network (FPNN) and YIELD Hub. Website is www.theicfp.org
“ICFP 2025 sets a record with 5,174 abstract submissions which is the most in ICFP history. This means more ideas competing for attention and a bigger responsibility to separate the signal from noise itself. There are signals emerging across the scientific programme and community agenda from the ICFP 2025. For example, you will see there are topics around climate SRHR popping up everywhere and from the heat supply chains or displacements to financing, resilience, shrinking civic spaces, among others. Topics like youth leadership has moved into the core ICFP 2025 programme. There are a lot of youth-focused sessions including a youth pre-conference which is 100% led and shaped by the young people from all over the world,” said Dina.
This SHE & Rights session is together hosted by Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI), International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) 2025, Y-PEER Asia Pacific, Y-PEER Laos, Family Planning News Network (FPNN), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media) and CNS.
