PARIS, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A U.N. agency is backing away from U.N.-proposed guidelines intended to reduce HIV infections through sex education for young people, officials in Paris said.
Responding to criticism by conservative groups, the United Nations Population Fund has requested its name be removed from published materials associated with the guidelines, set for release in draft form next week by UNESCO, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Critics say the program content is too strong for children and that it portrays access to legal abortion as a right, the Times said.
Plans call for the guidelines to be distributed to education officials, schools and teachers worldwide to provide information on what to teach young students about a range of health issues including sex and sexually transmitted diseases. The guidelines are designed to address four distinct age groups, the newspaper said.
"In the absence of a vaccine for AIDS, education is the only vaccine we have," said Mark Richmond, global coordinator for HIV and AIDS at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Richmond, who oversees coordination of educational priorities for UNESCO, said just 40 percent of young people ages 15 to 24 know how AIDS is transmitted but almost half of all new cases of AIDS occur in that age group.
