IHEU is pleased to highlight the dynamism of the newly formed Trinidad and Tobago Humanist Association - the first Humanist Association in the Caribbean. The Association was created because of the founders' conviction that a humanist perspective is crucial for peace, stability and progress of their society. The Association proposes that the Humanist principles of rationality, ethics, tolerance, and compassion should be applied to politics, social policies, and economic programmes, as that would help to draw the Carribean society back from the abyss of increasing crime, spiralling poverty, and incompetent governance.

In a statement issued on World Humanist Day on 21 June 2005, the Association, while denying it was anti- religious, stated "Our perspective does, however, offend religious fundamentalists, whose intrusions into public policy, in our view, help keep our society backward. But part of our purpose is to provide an alternative forum for the expression of moral viewpoints, since our religious leaders have, for the most part, failed the country in this regard".

The officers of the Association may be contacted at: Trinidad and Tobago Humanist Association, 9 Reserve Rd, Ablack Trace, Beaucarro, Trinidad and Tobago http://www.humanist.org.tt/

Sex Education in Trinidad and Tobago

Alarmed by the introduction of Abstinence Only education in schools, the Trinidad and Tobago Humanist Association issued the following statement:

Abstinence Only?

In an attempt to reassure the country that Abstinence Only education is not as dangerous as studies suggest, the Joint Abstinence Support Committee has managed to alarm us in the Trinidad and Tobago Humanist Association. The Committee took a crack at the impossible task of reconciling reality with their impractical and judgmental programme in a press release last week.

Contradictions abound in their muddled statement. The Abstinence Only programme caters only to youths who "have chosen to abstain ... irrespective of whether they have ever had sex or not". Those who either choose to have sex, or don't have a choice in the matter, are not within its constituency.

The Committee acknowledges this inadequacy, stressing that its programme does not replace traditional channels within school for teaching about sexuality. But what "traditional channels" are they referring to? Our nation's children have never had the benefit of long-term, widespread and comprehensive sex education in schools. At best, a few have benefited from the sporadic interventions of NGOs invited for an afternoon talk. Is it any wonder, given the ignorance deliberately imposed on our young people by the State, that the country's HIV- infection rates are so high? Yet the Abstinence Committee would have us believe that a revised Health and Family Life Education programme supported by a Moral Values Education curriculum would patch this gaping pothole. The Committee conveniently fails to add that its Chairman, Dr. Emmanuel Sennah, is also the Project Officer of this curriculum.

Ignorance Only?

The fact is, any approach to sexuality that imposes an inflexible notion of morality will inevitably undermine the delivery of factual and comprehensive sex education. This is exactly what the Abstinence Only programme does ... The Abstinence Committee in its statement also puts "comprehensive sex education" and "abortion rights" in the same sentence - a rather transparent attempt to imply that those who support sex education also favour abortion as a method of birth control. But "comprehensive sex education" involves the right to information, whereas "abortion rights" is an ethical debate about a woman's right to choose.

While comprehensive sex education accommodates messages on abstinence, fidelity and condom use all at once, Abstinence Only education actively and explicitly undermines the safe sex message. An eight-year-long study on the effect of virginity pledges published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that pledgers' STD infection rate did not differ from non-pledgers. Not only do most pledgers start having sex before they make it to marriage, but many are not equipped with critical information on consistent and correct condom use. By contrast, countries such the Netherlands, Sweden, and France, which have comprehensive sex education programmes, have lower teenage pregnancy and STD rates than countries which do not have such programmes.

A complete and sustained sex education programme that combines information on abstinence, being faithful, and contraceptive use, should be mandatory in all schools. These programmes should be non-judgmental and non-directive, fuelled by fact and by respect for the individual's right to think independently. The availability of such programmes should not depend on the whims of principals, as the Abstinence Committee suggests. In fact, it is the dissemination of this Abstinence Only curriculum, with its small catchment of students and its moral impositions, which should be left to individual discretion. Our children are being led astray by a Committee that's sensitive to "values" and "faith", while remaining indifferent to reality.