A/65/162 estimated at 2 million; almost 300,000 of that number were children.5 In addition, various studies have revealed increasing links between violence against women and HIV/AIDS. Women who have experienced violence are at a higher risk of HIV infection. 57 The need to provide the population with sexual education as a means of prevention has been emphasized repeatedly. Thus, HIV/AIDS highlights the close link between the right to comprehensive sexual education and the right to health and to life. 60. Violence against women is another pandemic that affects the whole of humanity. It is estimated that at least one in three women throughout the world has been beaten, subjected to sexual violence or abused in some way in the course of her life. Consequently, the Special Rapporteur considers that the empowerment of women, of which sexual education forms an essential part, is a powerful defence against violation of the human rights of girls and adolescent women. 58 In addition, men who receive appropriate sex education acquire values of solidarity, justice and respect for the integrity of others and are therefore less likely to resort to sexual or gender-based violence. B. Analysis by perspective 61. Regrettably, the rights perspective is very rarely included in sexual education programmes, which are usually limited to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and unwanted pregnancy. Although this approach is necessary in order to achieve enjoyment of the right to health and for the purposes of family planning, it cannot be the principal reason for including sexual education in the curriculum. Sexual education should be considered a right in itself and should be clearly linked with other rights in accordance with the principle of the interdependence and indivisibility of human rights. 62. Another topic frequently omitted from the sexual education curriculum is that of disability. Persons with disabilities often suffer from an unjustified perception of being incompetent or dangerous to themselves. Such prejudices, coupled with laws and practices limiting the legal capacity and ability to act of persons with disabilities, often compromise their right to informed consent, 59 because it is wrongly supposed that they do not have sexual desire or sustain intimate relationships. This amounts to denying an integral part of their personality, namely sexuality, and consequently their right to pleasure and happiness. 63. Sexual education must be free of prejudices and stereotypes that could be used to justify discrimination and violence against any group; it must therefore include a gender perspective that encourages people to think critically about the world around them. Both the hidden curriculum and the omitted curriculum currently play a central role in perpetuating among children the inequalities associated with patriarchal models and drastically reduce children’s potential for full __________________ 57 58 59 16 United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Violence against Women — Facts and Figures (2007) available at http://www.unifem.org/attachments/gender_issues/ violence_against_women/facts_figures_violence_against_women_2007.pdf. Http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ACT77/001/2008. See document A/64/272, para. 69. 10-46213