Sex-Ed Program in France: Recourse at the United Nations

The new sex education program has been mandatory for all public and private school students since September 2025. In response to this violation of parents' fundamental rights and children's privacy, the ECLJ, together with Juristes pour l'enfance and other associations, are taking action before the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Today we submitted an Individual communication on behalf of parents whose case was dismissed by the French supreme administrative court, the Conseil d'État.

“At this age [3, 4, 5 years old], we have to explain to them that it's really nice to touch your body, that it feels really good...” These are the words of a schoolteacher, recently shared on social media[1], explaining what she actually teaches children during sex education classes in kindergarten. This is the reality of what thousands of teachers and third-party interveners are teaching and will teach to students in public and private schools, aged 3 to 18.

The new program for "emotional, relational, and sexual education" (called EVARS in French) has been mandatory in all public and private schools under contract with the State since the start of the 2025 school year. This sex education program now imposes specific content to be covered in at least three mandatory lectures each year, with no exceptions nor exemptions possible. These courses, far from being limited to biology and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, aim to instill values and influence students' behavior with a very clear doctrine: Gender is only a social construct, have all the sexual experiences you want, the only limit is your pleasure and the consent of the other person.

In response, the association Juristes pour l'enfance (Lawyers for Children) and other associations defending the rights of parents and children, supported by hundreds of parents and thousands of petitioners, appealed to the Conseil d'État to request the suspension of this program. This court, now notoriously more concerned with pleasing the government than defending fundamental rights, dismissed the appeal in June 2025.

Today, the ECLJ is formally supporting one of these parents before the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the hope of forcing France to suspend this program or, at the very least, make it optional.

Why this sex education program is serious

This appeal aims first and foremost to uphold a fundamental principle: the right of parents to provide their children with an education that is consistent with their moral, religious, and philosophical convictions. This program deals with societal and ethical issues where morality is at the forefront, and it aims to give students clear behavioral guidelines to permanently influence their behavior in their social, emotional, and sexual lives. This is the objective of the program, and parents have the fundamental right to choose whether or not to participate in it, based on their beliefs. The state does not have the right to impose its morals and values on students and their parents.

The second serious problem with the EVARS program is its implementation. Since the state knows that it contains a number of controversial points, parents are sidelined and prevented from being involved in its implementation. They do not have the right to know the exact content of the course or to challenge the choice of an outside person to teach sex education to their children.

This program actually aims to bypass parents, to challenge what students may have learned from them, to do everything possible to prevent parents from being involved in the delivery of these courses, and to allow no recourse against abuses by third-party contributors. One of the associations supporting this appeal, SOS Éducation, has already collected hundreds of testimonies of such incidents, and it is now common knowledge that many outside contributors take advantage of their right to intervene to convey ideas, comments, or teaching materials that exceed common decency and the program itself.

Finally, in the opinion of many specialists, this program completely disregards children's privacy, as they are forced to talk about intimate matters in front of the whole class; their individual learning pace is not respected[2], as the age of puberty varies greatly and numerous scientific studies show that simply addressing issues of sexuality in the classroom is not necessarily effective to reduce sexual abuse in society[3].

The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

The individual communication filed today with this Committee asks it to remind France of the simple and clear provisions of Article 13 of the Covenant, which it has a mandate to enforce.

Firstly, parents have the right to “ensure the religious and moral education of their children in accordance with their own convictions.” However, the EVARS program deals with eminently moral issues, such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality, transsexuality, sex change, etc., and makes moral judgments on these subjects that may be contrary to those of parents.

Secondly, parents have the freedom “to choose for their children schools, other than those established by the public authorities.” However, the EVARS program also applies to private schools "under contract" (i.e. partially publicly funded schools), which infringes on the right of parents to choose schools, other than those of the state. Private schools under contract must be able to maintain their own character and offer a different educational approach and teaching in line with the parents' religion.

If the Committee accepts this request, France will have to justify the infringement of parents' rights and may be forced to modify the terms of implementation of this program.

You can support the ECLJ's action by signing our petition against the EVARS program and sharing your experiences with the implementation of this program with us:

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[1] Sexual violence: How can we protect our children? - Histoire Extra Scolaire EP.2, Histoires Crépues, October 16, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGw14i3P7vk

[2] Collective of intellectuals and child psychiatrists, “Sex education: it is not necessary to tell children everything!”, JDD, June 9, 2024.

[3] Lameiras-Fernández M, Martínez-Román R, Carrera-Fernández MV, Rodríguez-Castro Y. Sex Education in the Spotlight: What Is Working? Systematic Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 4;18(5):2555. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18052555. PMID: 33806507; PMCID: PMC7967369.