Children as young as nine could be jailed in the Philippines for committing certain crimes under a proposed law backed by the president.

The United Nations condemned the plan and said the country could be flouting international law designed to protect children.

President Rodrigo Duterte won May's elections after vowing to crack down on the country's drug crimes and promising to kill tens of thousands of dealers.

He said that the age of criminality had to be reduced to deter people from using minors to commit crimes and carry drugs for them.

The president was looking to reduce the age when youngsters can be jailed down from 15 to 12, but his allies are pushing for this to be reduced as low as nine.


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One of the law's main backers, Pantaleon Alvarez, said: "Adult criminals knowingly and purposely make use of youth below 15 years of age to commit crimes, such as drug trafficking."

Manila is a state party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says criminal responsibility below the age of 12 is not acceptable.

The UN children's agency UNICEF reminded the Philippines of its international obligations.

In a statement, UNICEF said: "Jail is no place for a child. It is alarming for children to be institutionalised. It will be retrogression on the part of the Philippine Government."

Rights organisations have launched a campaign called #ChildrenNotCriminals to urge the government to reconsider their support for the law.

One of the groups, Plan International, said children on the wrong side of the law were often victims of criminal gangs.

Ernesto Almocera of Plan International Philippines, said: "It is unfair that it's always the children who are blamed. This will result in children becoming hardened criminals."

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Campaigners said Mr Duterte should explore factors that led children to commit crimes, such as poverty and lack of parental guidance and education.

Melanie Llana, of the Philippine Action for Youth Offenders, said: "We cannot hold children to the same standard as we hold adult offenders.

"Are we really going to jail nine-year-olds who we know are not fully mature?"

Since Mr Duterte took office in June, almost 2,000 people have been killed in police operations and 2,800 have died in unexplained circumstances, according to official figures.

Critics allege some of the deaths amount to state-sponsored extrajudicial killings, a charge the president has rejected.