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2009 Reproductive Health Matters.

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Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):8898
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Teenage sexuality and rights in Chile:

from denial to punishment
Lidia Casas,a Claudia Ahumadab
a Associate Professor, Law School, Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile.
E-mail: lidia.casas@udp.cl
b Womens Campaign Coordinator, World AIDS Campaign, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract: While Chile sees itself as a country that has fully restored human rights since its return to
democratic rule in 1990, the rights of teenagers to comprehensive sexuality education are still not
being met. This paper reviews the recent history of sexuality education in Chile and related
legislation, policies and programmes. It also reports a 2008 review of the bylaws of 189 randomly
selected Chilean schools, which found that although such bylaws are mandatory, the absence of
bylaws to prevent discrimination on grounds of pregnancy, HIV and sexuality was common. In
relation to how sexual behaviour and discipline were addressed, bylaws that were non-compliant
with the law were very common. Opposition to sexuality education in schools in Chile is predicated
on the denial of teenage sexuality, and many schools punish sexual behaviour where transgression is
perceived to have taken place. While the wider Chilean society has been moving towards greater
recognition of individual autonomy and sexual diversity, this cultural shift has yet to be reflected
in the governments political agenda, in spite of good intentions. Given this state of affairs, the
Chilean polity needs to recognise its youth as having human rights, or will continue to fail in its
commitment to them. 2009 Reproductive Health Matters. All rights reserved.
Keywords: adolescents and young people, human rights, sexuality education, law and policy, Chile

HILE is a country of stark contrasts. While

progressive health care measures have
reduced maternal morbidity and mortality
rates to industrialised country levels1 and nearly
99% of births take place in a hospital setting,2
the teenage birth rate stands at almost 15% of
registered births nationally.3
Public health data show that live birth rates in
women under the age of 19 are class-sensitive,
increasing as socio-economic status decreases.4
The teenage birth rate in better-off areas of
Santiago, the capital, is less than 4% of all
births,5 similar to the rates of the Netherlands,
Norway and Sweden. The more disadvantaged
districts have rates of 1020%, as in Colombia
and the Dominican Republic, while in the most
disadvantaged areas, more than 20% of all
births are to teenage mothers, similar to African
88

countries such as Ghana.6 This reflects a significant contradiction in Chilean society: abundance alongside neglect. 7,8 Official Chilean
concern about teenage pregnancy dates back to
the 1960s, when the government created a Committee on Family Life and Sex Education (Comit
de Vida Familiar y Educacin Sexual) under the
Ministry of Education. In 1972 the government
launched a comprehensive sexuality education
programme, only to see it terminated after the
11 September 1973 military coup.9
The return to democracy in 1990 created great
expectations of a new cultural and political climate. While Chile sees itself as a country that
has fully restored human rights since 1990,
sexual and reproductive health policies, programmes and public discourse lack a consistent
human rights and gender focus.

L Casas, C Ahumada / Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):8898

Methodology
This article examines some of the factors that
led to the plight facing sexuality education in
Chile today. It reviews the recent history of
sexuality education in Chile and related legislation, policies and programmes, and looks especially at their impact on adolescents rights.
We analyse official documents including laws,
motions from the Chilean Congress and documents from the Ministry of Education and
National Statistics Institute, documentation from
the World Health Organization (WHO), the United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), human rights
reports and academic articles, cases in 2004 and
2006 in the Court of Appeals of Santiago, a 2008
case in the Constitutional Court of Chile and
media reports from two leading newspapers,
El Mercurio and La Nacin related to sexuality
education and adolescent sexuality.
In this context, we report on a study of school
bylaws in the Santiago metropolitan region,
which we conducted in 2008,10 whose aim was
to determine whether the bylaws were in keeping with Chilean and international human rights
law, and their main strengths and limitations.
The methodology consisted of analysing the
school bylaws of a random sample of 250 schools
(22% of the total in selected educational districts).
The final sample included 189 schools regulations;
the other 61 did not make their bylaws available.
Finally, we conducted semi-structured interviews
with school heads, teachers, parents and student
representatives from seven schools.

A society with double standards

Shallat, Blofield and Shepard characterise Chile
as a society with glaring double standards.1113
Sex and sexuality are everywhere and are used
to sell beer, cars and deodorant. There is an
ongoing tension between the government, which
has attempted to take steps to support adolescent
well-being through NGO condom drives and
sexuality education initiatives, and the political
and social elites, who try to prevent these efforts
from bearing fruit. These elites consist of rightwing political figures, including parliamentarians,
municipal staff and Catholic religious leaders.
One of their first victories was in 1997, when
the Supreme Court refused to order two TV stations, including one run by the Catholic University, to carry Health Ministry spots on HIV

prevention and condom use.14 In 2003, rightwing municipal officials responded to prevention
campaigns on STIs and unwanted pregnancy by
fining NGO health workers who were distributing free condoms in Chilean summer resorts.
The local Bishop, Jorge Medina, today a Vatican
official, said of these health workers that Satan
wears many disguises.15
In 2006, two mayors challenged family planning technical norms in court on the grounds
that parents had to be informed about sexual
activity in their children, and that allowing the
prescription of emergency contraception without parental involvement interfered with the
constitutional rights of parents to educate their
children.16 These efforts resulted in the Constitutional Court banning emergency contraception from the public health care system,17 even
though the private health care system and pharmacies are still allowed to provide it. Every attempt
to integrate sexuality education in the school curriculum is fought tooth and nail by these forces.
Since 1990, however, governments in Chile have
lacked the political will to tackle issues thought
likely to cause an outcry among the opposition
and the clergy and bring about a rift in the ruling
coalition. This is not to say that no progress has
been made, but every step forward is hampered
by opposition.
Treatment of young peoples sexuality is
directly connected with the ethics, values,
mores, and attitudes towards sex prevailing
in the adult world. Teenagers not only face
restrictions on information at home, they also
depend on health care providers for sexual and
reproductive health services. Public discourse
and policy implementation show the wide
gap between unrealistic adult perceptions that
teenagers are celibate or asexual beings and
their actual needs and rights in this respect.
Even when teenage sexuality is acknowledged,
policymakers and society tend to treat it as
problematic,10,18 as if adolescents need to be
protected from themselves. For example, in
2004 the Chilean law on statutory rape was
modified with the aim of providing greater
protection for young adolescents, but was
then followed by a policy establishing a legal
obligation on health care professionals and
teachers to report any adolescent under the age
of 14 who was sexually active or sought contraceptives. This led to the refusal of services,
89

L Casas, C Ahumada / Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):8898

reports to the authorities and non-compliance

with reporting, which risks sanctions.19,20

A history of sexuality education programmes

The current structure and legal framework of the
Chilean education system (public schools run
by local governments and publicly-subsidised
privately-run schools) are a legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship, governed by an Education Act
passed furtively in March 1990, in the dying
hours of the Pinochet regime. Although public
policy is under the purview of the Executive
and subject to internal political debate, law
reform requires Congressional approval.21 The
quasi-constitutional nature of the Act requires
a 4/7ths majority in both chambers of Congress
to amend; hence, all changes have been subject
to excruciatingly slow bargaining, mostly with
former Pinochet supporters and conservative
members of Congress.
As Chile ratified most international human
rights instruments, including the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, after 1990, NGOs
and academic institutions demanded policies
to address high rates of teenage pregnancy and
HIV infection. In 1991 a Commission was convened to propose major sexuality education
policy reform that was eventually adopted two
years later. The new policy provided a framework that took full account of the interests of
school principals, administrators, teachers, parents and religious officials22 but left content up
to the school community a procedural compromise designed to circumvent sharp political differences and widely conflicting views. The premise
was that since sexuality education was important
for children and young people, and families had
a primary role in imparting it, schools would
design their own programmes, with parental
involvement.22 The Commissions inability to
reach consensus also led to parents being given
the right to keep children from participating in
sexuality education. The Commissions official
statement argued that freedom of thought and
school autonomy were pivotal to public policy
on thorny issues such as sexuality:
Considering that ... incorporating a common
discourse into the school curriculum was impossible, a mechanism is required to decentralise
decision-making on issues where many diverse
norms, values and beliefs exist.22
90

JOCAS: conversations on relationships

and sexuality
Experts in the field and sexuality education
advocates regarded this result as a partial victory: at least some degree of sexuality education
would be implemented, providing a foundation
on which further action could then be taken.
However, it took two years before a pilot project,
begun with support from UNFPA, the Education
Ministry and other government agencies, began
work on JOCAS (Jornadas de Conversacin sobre
Afectividad y Sexualidad, Conversations on Relationships and Sexuality), a programme consisting
of three-day workshops for students, parents and
teachers.23 This is a massive event, where all participants are convened to work in small group
sessions lasting 90 minutes each for three days.
By the end, the school and the rest of the community should have identified the needs and
strengths of the community so as to integrate
sexuality and relationships into the school curriculum.24 After a test run in five schools in
1995,23 JOCAS were introduced more widely in
1996. A loud outcry from the Roman Catholic
hierarchy ensued, which pronounced the initiative devoid of moral values and claimed sexuality was a private issue best left to families.23
The staunchly Catholic Private Schools Federation and the government opposition also became
vocal critics.25 The Ministry held fast, hoping
that, in time, JOCAS would catch on and school
communities would start developing curricula.24
However, by 1999 less than 37% of all publiclyfunded schools had done so.23
By the end of 2000, when JOCAS was to begin
again as an joint Ministry initiative, opposition
by the Church and the Federation of Catholic
Schools resurfaced. They argued that JOCAS
heavily emphasised health criteria, not values
or mores.25 The programme was suspended after
an outcry against a talk in a school on how to
use a condom, demonstrated using a banana.26
The Minister of Education stated that education
on birth control methods was to be limited to
community health clinics and was not to take
place in schools.25 By the end of November of
2001, JOCAS were dropped by the government
as an official initiative, due to the pressure
from right-wing politicians and Catholic church
leaders. The Catholic Schools spokesperson
insisted that the sexuality education programme
only legitimised irresponsible and immature

L Casas, C Ahumada / Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):8898

sex for minors, as taught under the purview of

the Ministries of Education and Health and the
Women's Bureau.25 The media reported that the
programme, intended to begin in eight municipalities, was stalled due to Church opposition.
The pilot project was later implemented, and in
spite of civil society demands for information,
it took more than five years for the outcomes
to be partially disclosed.26 These revealed that
85% of students felt they had learnt with JOCAS
and valued the open space to discuss sexuality,
while 75% of teachers noted that JOCAS strengthened their relationship with students.26
JOCAS are still remembered as a crucial experience in school integration of sexuality education. They were popular so much so that some
schools continue to apply the model to this
day. They had a nationwide outreach and were
unique, in that the dynamics rested solely on the
participants. They were perceived to be democratic and appealing to the target audiences.
Their weakness was that they were conceived
as a series of continuing events, which needed
continuity in order to meet the ongoing needs of
young people through the education system.9
School counsellors, heads and administrators
surveyed by the Ministry of Education in 2004
said that while JOCAS were productive, lack of
continuity caused momentum to be lost.27
Today, most private schools have some type
of sexuality education programme but only a
few publicly-funded schools. In addition, less
than 10% of teachers have acquired the skills
to deal with sexuality in the classroom.8 There
have been a few isolated initiatives, yet without
the necessary continuity to become established.
The torch has been passed to a variety of academic and NGO programmes, which range from
provision of contraceptive and STI services to
teenagers to promotion of abstinence.9,2830
In these circumstances, a popular phone-in
radio show heard nationwide starting in 1996
became a leading source of sexuality information for teens and young people.31 The shows
genial host succeeded where public policy had
not, getting Chilean youth to talk freely and
unreservedly about sex.
The underlying cultural shift catalysed by
a recovered democracy was also evident elsewhere. For example, the Sunday edition of a
tabloid notorious for cover photos of minimally
attired women started a section on Health and

Relationships8 that takes queries from its mostly

working-class readers, with responses provided
by prominent sexual and reproductive health
specialists. Interestingly, questions posed by
readers in the 11-19 age group fall largely
within five areas: intercourse (including anal
and oral sex), anatomy and genitalia, teenage
pregnancy, homosexuality and STIs, and masturbation. The 2004 Ministry of Education survey
revealed that over 60% of students relied on television for most of their information on sex.27
Concerned at this turn of events, Chile Unido, a
conservative agency working on family issues
and anti-abortion, successfully lobbied the tabloid owners to let them provide a conservative
viewpoint on these matters. The urgent need for
comprehensive, accurate information for teenagers persists.8 Meanwhile, the Education Ministry
had to shelve a publication for parents designed as
part of a sexuality education drive after it contents
on masturbation were deemed offensive.1

Another attempt at public policy on

sexuality education
To show that there has been progress, Shepard
used the analogy of the half-full vs. half-empty
glass to assess the JOCAS and sexuality education programme.13 While we agree, expectations
for the Lagos and Bachelet administrations in
this respect have been particularly high. However,
progress on certain issues, including sexuality,
can lag behind even under often progressive
administrations. In 2004 the Education Ministry
under Lagos convened a Commission to review
matters since 1993 when the Sex Education Policy
was passed. Members included teachers, parents,
principals, students and experts in sexuality education and other fields (including author Casas).
The Commission encountered the pent-up frustration of community groups at government failure
in this area during the previous decade. On the
other hand, conservatives warned the Commission against introducing mandatory sexuality
education in schools, arguing that the Constitution
protected freedom of education and prevented
government from changing the law or policy.
The Commission found that while the 1993
policy claimed to be grounded in human rights,
there was no mention of the rights of the child.
The 1993 policy described at length the rights
and duties of parents but neglected to emphasise
91

L Casas, C Ahumada / Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):8898

the importance of adolescents ability to protect

their health and physical integrity. Since the
Convention on the Rights of the Child had been
ratified only a few years earlier, it could be
argued that the 1993 policy drafters lacked a
thorough understanding of its implications. The
new Commission noted that it was of pivotal
importance for changes in policy to be in line
with the Convention and all human rights instruments with a bearing on sexuality education.27
The procedural consensus of 1993 was based
on the premise of parental and family involvement, but little of the sort actually occurred. A
2005 Education Ministry survey found that less
than one third of private schools had invited
parents to sexuality workshops. The figure for
public schools run by local government was
less than 12%.27 Unless pressured, most schools
were clearly not open to addressing these issues.
Surveys and testimony heard by the Commission exposed the fact that most teachers lacked
the skills and educational materials required to
provide sexuality education, and that much
work and energy were needed to change this.
In 2005, the Commission, in closing, called for
respect for the diversity of views on sexuality
and the need for the government to step in where
families were not providing sufficient information or support. They proposed a five-year plan
to invite schools to develop new sexuality education curricula, starting in 2005.32 Yet, the Minister
of Education of the incoming Bachelet government lowered the priority and pulled the funding.
One activist referred to this turn of events as the
end of sexuality education in Chilean schools.33

Absence of legally mandated bylaws on

sexuality issues in schools
School bylaws, required by law, are internal codes
setting down a schools guiding principles and
rules on disciplinary matters, dress and punctuality, and generally regulate student behaviour.
Although they should be drafted in collaboration
with the entire school community, in practice they
are set by administrators with little input from
parents or students.
In 2000, legislation was passed banning discrimination against pregnant and parenting students, allowing them flexible school attendance34
and setting penalties for offending schools. It also
prohibited expelling students during the school
92

year for unpaid tuition fees and required publiclyfunded schools to recruit at least 15% of their
students from designated vulnerable groups.35
These changes were intended to comply with
the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Education Ministry had in fact been fighting against sex and gender discrimination,
including expulsion on grounds of pregnancy,
since 1991, when it first issued guidelines regarding pregnant students.* In a 2004 Ministry of
Education survey, 90% of parents, 82% of students and 75% of teachers thought that pregnant
students should not be discriminated against.27
In 2004, an administrative regulation mandated
maternity leave before and after childbirth aimed
at helping students stay in school.36 Additionally, a law in 2000 and 2001 banned discrimination against pregnant students and HIV-positive
students,34,37 and the Ministry issued guidelines
on how to support retention of HIV-affected children and teenagers.
In 2007, UNICEF and the Education Ministry
commissioned a study of school bylaws, discrimination and due process of law10 to determine whether school bylaws were compliant
with Chilean law and human rights, how they
were drafted and applied and whether any penalties had an educational purpose. The school
bylaws we examined fell into three categories:
compliant (legal requirements were met, even if
minimally or formally), non-compliant (inconsistent with the law), or not covered at all.
While most of the bylaws appeared to be compliant, the extent of non-compliant rules and
omitted topics was significant and a matter for
*Circular 247 on pregnant students and breastfeeding
promoted the right of pregnant students to continue their
education, calling on schools to refrain from dismissing
students because of pregnancy and establishing flexible
norms regarding school attendance to enable them to
take examinations. In an emblematic case, litigated first
in the Court of Appeals of La Serena (Carabantes v. Araya,
Case 21.633, 25 December 1997), the Supreme Court
upheld a schools decision to expel a pregnant student.
However, her family brought a complaint before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, which brokered
a friendly settlement. Report No. 33/02, Friendly Settlement, Petition 12046, Mnica Carabantes Galleguillos v.
Chile, March 12, 2002. At: <www1.umn.edu/humanrts//
cases/33-02.html>. Accessed 25 February 2009.

L Casas, C Ahumada / Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):8898

concern (Table 1). Many bylaws equivocated on

procedures for imposing penalties, while regulating other aspects to the extreme, e.g. dress code
on piercing, hair length, clothing style and colour,
and accessories.
Table 1 shows that the absence of bylaws on
pregnancy, HIV, and sexuality and discrimination
is far greater than compliant or non-compliant
bylaws. Non-compliance was also very high in
relation to how sexual behaviour and discipline
were addressed.
Some 80% of school bylaws made no mention of pregnancy or HIV and over 60% ignored
sexual behaviour. The only aspect explicitly
mentioned in compliant bylaws was pregnancy.
Awareness of pregnancy-related discrimination
issues appeared to be high, and all respondents
interviewed said that their school bylaws had
been amended as per the new law. One principal
acknowledged that although the Education
Ministry order directing schools not to expel
pregnant students dated back to 1991, in practice his schools bylaws were amended only after
2000. In all cases where the bylaws in question
were found to be compliant, their regulations
were based on maternity leave regulations in
the 2004 labour law. 36 These included: from
the seventh month of pregnancy, students are
no longer required to attend class. They should
come in once a week to pick up and return
homework and write tests, and go back to

school three months after delivery. One school

extended the maternity leave period, arguing
that it did not have the infrastructure to accommodate pregnant students and did not wish to
be held liable if something went wrong.
Sexuality was found to be regulated in ways
inconsistent with privacy rights (37.5%), banning
everything from expression of affection, where
couples meet and how they must behave, even
outside the school grounds and in their free time.
These norms, school officials said, aimed to ensure
that students did not consider schools a public
park or a living room. In mixed-sex schools,
dating was generally allowed but expressions of
great affection were not. At times, school codes
used language that was obsolete or obscure by
most young peoples standards. For example,
some schools banned behaviour contrary to
morals and decency, interpreted by some officials
as kissing and fondling and by others as having
sex on the premises. One school even banned
dating or fondling within a set radius around it.
In the 2004 Ministry of Education survey, 79%
of students and 81% of teachers thought gays
and lesbians should not be forced to keep their
sexual orientation secret.27 While most schools
had working or unwritten rules on sexual orientation, ranging from tolerance as long as there
were no public expressions of homosexuality
to the assertion that it did not happen, interviews showed that attitudes toward homosexuality

93

L Casas, C Ahumada / Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):8898

were wide-ranging. While all student respondents

were aware of fellow gay and lesbian students,
principals and teachers did not always share this
awareness. A frequent student answer was that
gays and lesbians were not singled out for harassment provided they were discreet. One principal
argued that he should not be asked to accept what
the wider society had not; others were not aware
of gay or lesbian students in their schools. In our
study, students and parents recognised that students had been expelled on grounds of sexual
orientation and the school culture obliged them
to remain in the closet.
These findings illustrate the difficulties Chilean
schools face when it comes to admitting that children and teenagers are sexual beings with rights.
Chilean society has been moving towards greater
tolerance and awareness of diversity, including
with regard to sexuality. Our interviews, particularly with students, are testimony to their awareness of these matters.10 Much of the adult world,
however, has yet to see and appreciate this diversity to the same extent.

Punishment of sexuality
These findings convey a narrative of sexuality
being denied or punished in Chilean educational
settings. The absence of bylaws and non-compliant
bylaws show a failure to recognise teenagers as
holders of rights, and this translates into public
controversy whenever their sexuality comes to
the fore. At the judicial level, sexuality is viewed
through a moral lens, and is restricted solely to
adults. This was apparent in a case brought
against a Chilean television station that showed
teenagers engaging in a game of cultural striptease involving suggestive dancing and the
removal of pieces of clothing.38 The Court ruled
the segment was objectionable, because it invites
under-age individuals to naturally follow analogous behaviours that, clearly, are more appropriate for the adult world. The programme projects
the idea that sexuality is free of affection, and
invites them precociously to discover a reality
that is still unfamiliar to them, which does
not contribute to the spiritual and intellectual
development of children and youth. The latter
is an essential mission of the media, especially
television, due to its impact.38
The Chilean media have reported for years
on students being expelled from schools for
94

sexuality-related behaviour. Teenagers are discriminated against for getting pregnant or wearing attire deemed to be against moral values.
Even when cases have gone to court, students
have not always been protected from discriminatory rulings. Schools have argued that parents
and students are bound by their internal rules
and should not complain about procedures or
penalties imposed.39
Schools still tend to react with dismay whenever student sexuality surfaces. In the past few
years, several gay and lesbian students have
gone public through court cases, marches and
the media to demand that the Ministry of Education take action against discrimination in their
school. In 2005 a Brigade of Gay and Lesbian
High School students was formed seeking to
stamp out discrimination in the education
system. This collective was hosted by the Movement of Homosexual Integration and Liberation.40
Such initiatives have had varying degrees of
success. In 2004, for example, 300 students held
a rally in protest at the dismissal of two gay
students, leading to their successful reinstatement. However, many cases do not reach public
light and much remains to be done.41
The ideals of abstinence and celibacy proclaimed by most Catholic-run schools are a particularly notorious part of the culture of control
and repression. 42,43 In late 2007, the media
reported that a teenage couple, concerned about
having had unprotected sex, were suspended
after asking a school counsellor about emergency contraception. The suspension was lifted
only after the Education Ministry intervened.44
Gender discrimination was also at play in the
case of a girl unwittingly videotaped while performing oral sex on a classmate in a public park.
The video clip was uploaded to a popular website. Arguing that she had compromised the
reputation of the school and its female students,
the school asked the girl to find alternative placement but took no action against her sexual partner or the male classmates who captured the
scene on their cell phones.45
The Ministry of Education has also had to
step in in cases involving gay or lesbian students
harassed or expelled from school on sexual
orientation grounds.43 Such discrimination is
frequently reported by activists. It is not common
for students to take these cases to Court, as judges
are hard to predict. Adolescents end up voluntarily

GONZALO VELSQUEZ

L Casas, C Ahumada / Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):8898

Activity on sexual diversity in an educational session conducted by Movimiento de Integracin y

Liberacin Homosexual (MOVILH), an NGO that works with gay and lesbian high school students, Chile
withdrawing from school as it was euphemistically described in our study.10

What does the future hold

2009 is an election year and for the first time
since 1990, it is far from clear whether the
centreleft coalition will be able to remain in
power. In spite of good intentions, the governments political agenda is continually being
eroded by political forces that refuse to consider
young people as sexual beings with rights.
The Rights Protection Unit of the Ministry of
Education makes important efforts to foster rights
awareness and secure students rights whenever
cases of discrimination have taken place in
schools, especially with regard to suspensions.43
However, most of these initiatives have little
impact on public policy and law. Today, the issue
is the lack of willingness to open a dialogue on

rights, gender and sexuality among young

people. The absence of an effective national
sexuality education programme is borne most
by the poorest in Chilean society because services in the private sector are not affected, only
the public sector.
The requirement of a 4/7ths majority in both
houses of Congress hampers law reform, and
conservative rhetoric has not let up. We believe
the threat of litigation will deter any government attempt to introduce mandatory sexuality
education in schools through public policy or
legal reform. These issues are present in the current debate on the Birth Control and Emergency
Contraception Bill, tabled in June 2009 by President Bachelet, to secure all methods of birth
control, including emergency contraception, in
the public health care system.46
As the presidential election in December 2009
approaches, teenage sexuality has become a
95

L Casas, C Ahumada / Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):8898

bargaining chip with the opposition, who have a

candidate running high in the polls. The opposition in the Chamber of Deputies tabled an
amendment to the new bill, obliging health care
providers to inform parents or another adult when
they prescribe emergency contraception to any girl
aged 14-16, whenever they deem the teenagers
health or life to be in urgent need of protection.47
This was backed by the Executive, in hopes that
it would reduce opposition to the bill. The amendment is a regressive measure, however, compared
with the 2008 Constitutional Court decision on
emergency contraception, that upheld teenagers
right to confidential services.
When the Senate Health Committee approved
the amended bill, two supporting Senators tabled

another amendment, to establish mandatory

sexuality education programmes in schools.48
As the possibility of remaining in power is less
predictable, some politicians are willing to put
issues on the agenda that have divided the governing coalition. The pro-Pinochet UDI party has
already announced it will challenge the bill in the
Constitutional Court if it is passed by Congress.
Several UN treaty bodies have recommended
that Chile adopt laws, policies, and programmes
upholding sexual and reproductive rights.49,50
But the status quo undermines, and ultimately
violates, adolescents human rights. Unless the
Chilean polity begins to consider its youth as
holders of rights, Chile will continue to fail in
its commitment to them.

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Rsum
Alors que le Chili se voit comme un pays qui a
pleinement rtabli les droits de lhomme depuis
son retour la dmocratie en 1990, les droits
des adolescents une ducation sexuelle
complte ne sont toujours pas satisfaits. Cet
article examine lhistoire de lducation sexuelle
au Chili et la lgislation, les politiques et les
programmes lis. Il fait galement tat dune
analyse du rglement dun chantillon alatoire
de 189 coles chiliennes, qui a rvl que mme
si ces textes sont obligatoires, labsence de
rglement pour prvenir la discrimination en
raison dune grossesse, du VIH et de la sexualit
tait frquente. Les rglements qui ne respectaient
pas la loi sur le traitement du comportement sexuel
et la discipline taient nombreux. Lopposition
lducation sexuelle dans les coles chiliennes se
fonde sur le refus de la sexualit adolescente, et
beaucoup dcoles punissent ce quelles jugent
tre une transgression sexuelle. Alors que la
socit chilienne plus large a volu vers une
reconnaissance accrue de lautonomie individuelle
et de la diversit sexuelle, cette orientation culturelle
ne se retrouve pas encore dans le programme
politique du Gouvernement, en dpit de bonnes
intentions. Dans cette situation, la classe politique
chilienne doit reconnatre que les adolescents ont
des droits, sous peine de trahir ses engagements
lgard de la jeunesse.

98

al Proyecto de Ley sobre

Informacin, Orientacin y
Prestaciones en materia de
Regulacin de la Fertilidad.
(Boletn N 6582-11).15
julio de 2009.
48. Meneses A. Comisin de Salud
Senado da luz verde a pldora
del da despus. La Nacin.
11 August 2009. At: <www.
lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias_
v2/site/artic/20090811/pags/
20090811191447.html>.
Accessed 17 August 2009.
49. Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights.
Concluding Observations:
Chile. 26 November 2004.
50. Committee on the Rights of
the Child. Concluding
Observations: Chile CRC/C/15/
Add.173 (3 April 2002).

Resumen
Aunque Chile se ve a s mismo como un pas
que ha restablecido plenamente los derechos
humanos desde que se reinstaur la democracia
en 1990, an no se realizan los derechos de la
adolescencia a la educacin sexual completa.
En este artculo se revisa la historia reciente
de la educacin sexual en Chile y la legislacin,
polticas y programas relacionados. Tambin se
informa sobre un estudio de 2008 de los reglamentos
de 189 escuelas chilenas seleccionadas al azar,
donde se encontr que aunque dichos reglamentos
son obligatorios, la ausencia de reglamentos para
evitar la discriminacin por motivos de embarazo,
VIH y sexualidad era comn. En cuanto a la
forma en que se trata el comportamiento sexual
y la disciplina, los reglamentos que no cumplan
con la ley eran muy comunes. La oposicin a la
educacin sexual en las escuelas de Chile se
basa en la negacin de la sexualidad de los
adolescentes, y muchas escuelas castigan el
comportamiento sexual cuando se percibe que
ha ocurrido transgresin. Aunque la sociedad
chilena en general se ha movido hacia un mayor
reconocimiento de la autonoma individual y la
diversidad sexual, an falta reflejar esta transicin
cultural en la agenda poltica del gobierno, pese a
las buenas intenciones. En vista de esta situacin, el
sistema de gobierno chileno debe reconocer que su
juventud tiene derechos humanos; de lo contrario,
continuar fracasando en su compromiso a estos.