The National Human Rights Commission of Korea concluded that conducting a urine test by forcing the student to urinate into a paper cup in front of a teacher during cracking down of campus smoking violated personal rights of the student guaranteed under article 10 of Constitutions.
The Commission concluded that during smoking crackdown in campus, students’ human rights have to be guaranteed and the way the urine test was conducted is excessive even for the purpose of maintaining order in school.
Accordingly, the Commission made a recommendation to the head of the high school concerned to stop conducting urine test to crack down campus smoking and introduce a human rights friendly measure.
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The Complainant, a high-school student, filed a complaint to the Commission saying that he was forced to urinate in front of teacher to conduct a urine test and treated like a criminal.
The Commission believes that there is a need to control smoking in campus and it is deemed to be difficult to actually guide the students not to smoke.
However, the Commission concluded that even the urine test was conducted upon consent of the student it cannot be deemed to be entirely voluntary given the status of teacher and student. The Commission also concluded that forcing student to urinate in paper cup in front of teacher is problematic from the perspective of protecting student’s personal rights.
