Sexual and Relationship Therapy, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2000 Working with young peopleÐtowards an agenda for sexual health PETER AGGLETON 1 & CATHY CAMPBELL 2 1 Institute of Education, London; 2 London School of Economics, United Kingdom ABSTRACT In this paper we outline key elements of a human rights-based framework for sexual health promotion that takes account of young people’s needs and interests. This framework is located against the backdrop of a critique of the way in which negative de®nitions of `sexual health’ and of `adolescence’, as well as restrictions on open and appropriate sex education in schools, undermine the likelihood that young people will achieve optimal bene®t from existing services and strategies in countries such as England and Scotland. Central to our analysis is an af®rming and positive de®nition of sexual healthÐthat focuses on the attainment of sexual pleasure and which links sexuality to an expression of individual and collective needs and broader human rights and responsibilities. We point to ways in which such a framework might inform the provision of appropriate information about positive sexual health, and of more accessible and integrated sexual health services. We also highlight the need for measures to improve young people’s con®dence and aspirations, and to increase youth participation in decision making in matters relating not only to their sexual health, but also to the wider social and community environments within which young people’s sexuality is negotiated. Introduction Only 20 years ago, to talk publicly about `sexual health’ would probably have been meaningless. In the early 1980s, when we ®rst began work in this ®eld, we can recall colleagues looking askance when the word `sex’ was mentioned, and early UK research on AIDS was reportedly delayed on the grounds that such enquiry could hardly be `serious’ subject matter ( Berridge, 1996). Nowadays, much has changed and there can be relatively few health promotion workers who cannot talk con®dently about oral, vaginal and anal sexÐat least in the safety of their professional environments. Much has changed also at the level of of®cial discourse. Both England and Scotland are currently embarked on the development of sexual health strategies which, in perhaps different ways, will seek to integrate concern about rising rates of Correspondence to: Peter Aggleton, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education University of London, 27±28 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0AA, UK. Email p.aggleton@ioe.ac.uk. ISSN 1468-1994 print/ISSN 1468-1749 online/00/030283-14 Ó British Association for Sexual and Relationship Therapy