Reframing rights, culture, and health
Unpacking global dynamics in the sexuality education literature
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15097808 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sinai Harel (0000-0002-0137-9986, Osaka University of Human Sciences), Rie Ogasawara (Osaka City University), Beverley Anne Yamamoto (0000-0003-1791-6827, Osaka University of Human Sciences, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-14 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Culture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13691058.2026.2635621 |
| PMID | 41846279 |
| OpenAlex | W7138918433 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 45 |
Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) has become a key international framework for addressing young people's sexual and reproductive health, rights and wellbeing. Promoted by United Nations agencies, CSE is informed by universal principles of human rights and gender equality, while also emphasising cultural sensitivity and local adaptation. However, the relationship between these universal frameworks and diverse local contexts remains contested and insufficiently examined. This study critically examined how the academic literature conceptualises rights, culture and health in sexuality education, focusing on their framing and their relationship within global North-South power dynamics. Through a review of 70 academic papers published between 1988 and 2020, we trace how these core concepts were defined, prioritised and positioned in relation to one another. Our analysis indicates a predominantly Northern rights-based paradigm in which culture is framed as a contextual challenge commonly encountered in the Global South, while health is positioned within a narrow, risk-oriented biomedical framework. Building on existing critiques, we argue for a more nuanced engagement with health and culture that remain grounded in rights-based principles, while recognising the potential to reposition health and culture as legitimate and enabling components of comprehensive sexuality education
Cognitive reframing · Framing (construction · Global health · Human rights · Human sexuality · Power (physics · Reproductive health · Sexuality education · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
Gender Justice, Development, and Rights
Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Processes
Sexuality Education
Sexuality Education and Desire
A Guide to Conducting a Standalone Systematic Literature Review
Masculinities and young men's sex education needs in Ireland
Teaching empowerment? Power and agency in sexuality education discourses in the context of HIV prevention programmes in South Africa
But is it Comprehensive ? Unpacking the ‘comprehensive’ in comprehensive sexuality education
Comprehensive Sexuality Education as a Means of Promoting Sexual Health
‘It's got to be about enjoying yourself’
Feeling abstinent? Feeling comprehensive? Touching the affects of sexuality curricula
Probing the politics of comprehensive sexuality education
‘We didn't cover that at school’
The discourses of sexuality in curriculum documents on sexuality education
Pleasure/desire, sexularism and sexuality education
Not by CSE alone… Furthering reflections on international cooperation in sex education
Closing Sex Education's Knowledge/Practice Gap
Silence, nostalgia, violence, poverty
Taking ICPD beyond 2015
Health discourse, sexual slang and ideological contradictions among Mozambican youth
Discourses of Exclusion
A Rights‐Based Approach to Sexuality Education
Approaching Southern theory
Beyond the birds and the bees
Encountering gender
Discussing culture and gender-based violence in comprehensive sexuality education in Ethiopia
Sex Education as Health Promotion
Sexuality, Schooling, and Adolescent Females
Culturespeak' is everywhere
Using southern theory
Facing negative reactions to sexuality education through a Multicultural Human Rights framework
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |