Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health Education 2016 1. 1. INTRODUCTION Knowledge on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) is essential to the well‐ being of any person and it is a fundamental aspect of our lives. Nevertheless, despite the importance of the subject matter, it is considered taboo to talk about SRH within most societies because of the prevalent cultural and political sensitivities, especially among the poor.1 In most developing nations, Reproductive Health (RH) has become an issue, especially in areas where the people have little or no access to SRHE or facilities. Most communities, like the Maldives, are largely centered around religious beliefs and family values and in many instances, these values and moral dictates are based on protecting the youth from acting on their sexual impulses before marriage. The belief that teaching youth about SRH will lead to premarital and promiscuous sexual behavior is an unfortunate barrier to the correct implementation and usage of RH in these communities. However, a review article on 83 studies conducted to measure the impact of curriculum‐based sex and HIV education, suggests that 42% of those who received SRHE programmes were more responsible in their sexual behavior than those who did not receive such information2. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), poor knowledge or information on RH is a problem faced by millions of people in the developing world, where there are some 200 million couples with an unmet need for contraception and over 350 million people who contact Sexually Transmitted 1 Wahba, M. & Roudi‐fahimi, F. (2012). The need for reproductive health education in schools in Egypt. Retrieved fromhttp://www.prb.org/pdf12/reproductivehealth‐education‐egypt.pdf 2 Kirby, D. B., Laris, B. A. & Rolleri, L. A. (2007). Sex and HIV Education Programmes: Their impact on Sexual Behaviours of Young People throughout the World. Journal of Adolescent Health 40, 206‐217. Retrieved from http://www.sidastudi.org/ resources/inmagic‐img/dd2891.pdf 1 INTRODUCTION