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Adolescents and Young People
In the past several years, a number of countries have
passed laws, drafted new constitutions or approved amendments to legal codes that protect and promote
adolescents’ rights, including their right to reproductive
health care, and aim to eliminate disparities in
how boys and girls are treated and valued, within
families and by society.
Peru approved legislation guaranteeing a right to
education with equal opportunities for girls and boys.
Another law seeks to enable rural girls to complete
secondary school, and calls for eliminating discrimination
against young girls and female adolescents. It
also mandates separate health services for women in
education facilities. Tunisia has also adopted legislation
guaranteeing the right to education—without
discrimination based on sex or other factors.
Legislation in Argentina and Panama guarantees
pregnant adolescents the right to remain in school.
Panama’s law establishes pregnant adolescents’ right to
receive integral health care during pregnancy, childbirth
and in the post-partum period (services will be
provided for free if young people cannot afford care). The Ministry of
Health will train teachers to advise students
on reproductive health and deter discrimination.
Nicaragua passed a comprehensive law on youth
development that enumerates the rights of youth
(defined as those aged 18 to 30) to reproductive health
information, sexual education, and reproductive
rights, including access to family planning services
and information on STIs, unwanted pregnancy,
unsafe abortion and HIV/AIDS.
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