Comprehensive Sex Education in Peru: What Is at Stake for the Protection of Children and Adolescents?

Human Rights Research Center

2 hours ago

4 min read

October 6, 2026

HRRC calls on Peru to ensure that all children and adolescents have access to age-appropriate, evidence-based sex education and effective protection mechanisms against sexual violence. As Peru changes its approach to sex education, protecting students requires not only accountability after abuse occurs, but also sustained prevention, safe reporting mechanisms, and access to information that helps children and adolescents recognize violence and seek help.

A group of students wave before receiving school supplies at the Corazón de Jesús school in Iquitos, Perú [Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

On September 15, a 16-year-old student at Liceo Naval Almirante Guise, a school administered by the Peruvian Navy in Lima, reported sexual assault by other students inside a school bus. The case is being investigated by authorities and has raised concerns about the ability of educational institutions to prevent and respond to sexual violence against students.

The case comes just months after Peru formally changed its sexual education policy. In May 2026, the Ministry of Education (Minedu) repealed the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (Educación Sexual Integral, or ESI) guidelines approved in 2021 and replaced them with new guidelines for sexuality education “based on scientific, biological, and ethical principles”. The change was mandated by a law approved by Congress in late 2025.

The 2021 ESI framework did not create sexuality education in Peru from scratch. The country had already implemented sexuality education policies in previous years, but Vice-Ministerial Resolution No. 169-2021-MINEDU established new guidelines for its implementation in public and private schools. The ESI framework sought to provide children and adolescents with age-appropriate knowledge and tools related to bodily care, autonomy, self-care, emotional development, interpersonal relationships, and violence prevention. Its aim was to help students develop a safe, responsible, and healthy approach to sexuality.

However, the implementation of this approach faced difficulties and sustained political opposition, particularly regarding its approach to gender. This opposition intensified following the approval of the National Curriculum in 2016, which incorporated the gender approach into basic education. Conservative groups such as Con Mis Hijos No Te Metas and Padres en Acción questioned the role of the State in education in relation to parental authority, as well as content related to gender, sexual orientation, and diversity, which some considered incompatible with their religious or family values. Some opponents referred to the gender approach as “gender ideology”.

The controversy reached both the courts and Congress. In 2022, Congress approved a measure giving parent associations a role in approving educational materials. Peru’s Ombudsman’s Office warned that the measure could affect Minedu’s authority over education policy and children’s and adolescents’ right to receive an education based on technical criteria. In 2024, Congresswoman Milagros Jáuregui also introduced a bill seeking to strengthen parental authority over their children’s sex education and allow certain exemptions from educational content on the basis of conscience, beliefs, or religious convictions.

The decisive change came in December 2025, when Congress approved Law No. 32535, promoted by Jáuregui. The law ordered Minedu to develop new sex education guidelines based on “scientific, biological, and ethical” principles and to remove references to Comprehensive Sexuality Education from the national and regional curricula. In May 2026, Minedu implemented the provision and formally repealed the 2021 ESI guidelines.

The Ministry maintains that sexuality education has not disappeared from schools and that the new framework continues to include content such as bodily care and the prevention of sexual abuse. However, human rights organizations have raised concerns about the change. IDEHPUCP has warned that replacing ESI could weaken prevention tools related to autonomy, personal boundaries, consent, and the recognition of situations of violence.

These concerns are particularly relevant given the persistence of violence in schools. Between January and August 2026, Minedu’s SíseVe reporting system recorded more than 11,000 reports of school violence, including more than 2,000 reports of sexual violence. These figures represent reports and do not necessarily correspond to individual cases, but they illustrate the scale of the problem within the education system.

The Liceo Naval case brings the role of Comprehensive Sexuality Education and the role of the State in recognizing and preventing sexual violence back to the center of the debate. The discussion is not limited to what should be taught in schools, but also to how education can help students understand their bodies, establish boundaries, recognize abuse, and know where and how to seek help.

From a human rights perspective, protecting students does not end with investigating and prosecuting an assault. UNESCO recognizes age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education as a tool that can help children and adolescents understand their bodies, develop healthy relationships, recognize situations of violence, and know where to seek help.

It also requires prevention, safe reporting mechanisms, training for educational staff, and access to age-appropriate information. In this context, the debate over ESI is not only a discussion about the school curriculum, but also about how the State fulfills its obligation to protect children and adolescents from violence.

Glossary

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) — a curriculum‑based, incremental and scientifically-accurate approach that teaches children and young people about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality in a culturally-relevant and age-appropriate way.

Gender Approach — focus on addressing the root causes of gender inequalities.

Gender Ideology — is a politically contested term used primarily by religious conservatives, right-wing political figures, and anti-gender movements to describe and oppose modern concepts of gender identity, transgender rights, and progressive social policies.

Sexual Violence — is defined as a violent act of a sexual nature, carried out without consent or the capacity to consent. Such acts are not limited to physical violence, and may not involve any physical contact.

Sexual Orientation — a person's sexual identity or self-identification as bisexual, straight, gay, pansexual, etc.

Sexuality Education — Sex education helps people gain the information and skills they need to make the best decisions for themselves about sex and relationships.

Violence Prevention — Violence prevention is the whole of society working deliberately and sustainably to remove sources of harm and inequality, and heal woundedness, by intentionally growing an ethic of mutual care, respect and inclusion to build peace.

References

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Comprehensive Sex Education in Peru: What Is at Stake for the Protection of Children and Adolescents?

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