Drug tests for school kids a dangerous move

President Duterte’s murderous “war on drugs” may soon place thousands of primary school children in harm’s way.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency announced last week that it is seeking authority from the Dangerous Drugs Board to impose annual drug tests on teachers and school children starting from the fourth grade.

PDEA justified the move as an attempt to identify 10-year-old potential drug users so they “can get intervention while they are still young.”

But this proposal, the latest dangerous move in Mr. Duterte’s antidrug campaign that has already claimed the lives of dozens of children, will place schoolchildren at even graver risk and raises human rights concerns.

Taking a child’s bodily fluids, whether blood or urine, without their consent may violate the right to bodily integrity and constitute arbitrary interference with their privacy and dignity.

Depending on how such tests are conducted, it could also constitute degrading treatment, and may deter children from attending school or college for reasons unrelated to any potential drug use, depriving them of their right to an education.

The government should provide children with accurate information about the potential risks of drug use, not put them in the crosshairs of a summary killing campaign that has already claimed the lives of more than 12,000 Filipinos.

PHELIM KINE, deputy director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch