Yesterday marked day two of a week long conference on “Adolescents and Youth” held by the UN Commission on Population and Development (CPD). While the conference is supposed to address a wide range of topics related to population, development and youth, it has focused almost exclusively on promoting the sexual and reproductive rights of youth, comprehensive sexual education, and provoking fear among countries about the burgeoning youth population in underdeveloped regions like sub-Saharan Africa.
Frankly, even though the theme of the conference is “Adolescents and Youth”, anyone listening to country statements or reviewing the outcome document currently being negotiated would never know it. A more accurate theme for the conference would read, “The Sexual Rights of Youth and Overpopulation.”
Besides the fact that the promotion of sexual and reproductive rights often includes abortion or that the promotion of comprehensive sexual education is controversial because of its disturbing curriculum, the real problem is that the UN’s obsession with sex and sexualizing youth means that important development issues for youth like education, unemployment and health care have been ignored.
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