On the 3rd of February 2022, the Basic Civil Court in Skopje delivered its verdict against the “Od nas za nas” Association for committing the tort of defamation against the Health Education and Research Association – HERA on account of continuously posting untrue facts on its Facebook page about the organisation and the comprehensive sexuality education. More precisely, the Basic Civil Court confirmed that the untruths placed by “Od nas za nas” are damaging to the reputation of HERA as organisation, which has been raising the public awareness for more than 20 years now, particularly among the young population, about the importance of obtaining scientifically based information about their safety, wellbeing and sexual and reproductive health. For this very reason, the Court ordered the Association to remove the false content from their Facebook page.
The Court ruled in the civil liability proceedings involving insult and defamation that was brought by HERA last year, following the initial surge of false and manipulative information about the organisation and the comprehensive sexuality education, that were disseminated by certain groups on the social networking service Facebook. Ever since then, pieces of untrue information have been created and shared even more actively, with a single goal in mind – to trigger fear and panic among the people, which is why the Court decided to order the removal of this information from the social media.
This is why, we call on all the citizens, especially on parents and young people, to take very reservedly and verify all the information that is shared on Facebook by the “Od nas za nas” Association and other like-minded associations. Even though they present themselves as children’s rights defenders, their posts about comprehensive sexuality education spew xenophobia, racism and intolerance, and are based on conspiracy theories, consequently putting the public health at risk, and violating the children’s right to gain access to accurate information, and to knowledge and skills, that will enable them to stay safer and healthier in the future.
Since recently, these factors have joined the so-called “Child Protection Coalition”, the partners of which include organisations and political parties that stand up against the right to abortion and reproductive freedom, as well as a person in respect of whom the Discrimination Prevention and Protection Commission has already issued an opinion of him having committed perpetual and multiple harassment, thus encouraging hatred against a marginalised social group.
We would like to remind that comprehensive sexuality education contributes to the protection of young people’s health and to their proper emotional development. This education provides information to the young people about their civil rights and the rights of all other citizens in the country, and helps them learn how to recognise harassment and violence, including when committed on the internet, and how to protect themselves against it. They also learn what it means to have equality between men and women and how to take care for their own sexual and reproductive health. Comprehensive sexuality education has been recognised by many international organisations, the Council of Europe and the United Nations agencies, as a necessary tool in combating gender stereotypes and violence against women and children, but also as an educational tool for personal healthcare, which is why it can be found in many recommendations given to our country. That these topics are crucially important for the development of children was also confirmed in our field research and experiences gathered over the many years of implementation of the informal comprehensive sexuality education programme, not only from the young people, but also from parents and teachers.
This is exactly why HERA will continue to monitor the publication of content related to comprehensive sexuality education on the social media and will resolutely challenge any lie, manipulation or conspiracy theory that, at the end of the day, do the greatest harm exactly to children and young people.
