The Government of Sri Lanka says it maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding cases of violence against children and is committed to bring perpetrators to justice as expeditiously as possible. 

“While adequate laws have been put in place, at the level of implementation, 42 children’s and Women’s bureaus have established at police stations across the country look into complaints pertaining to children.”

The Secretary to the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, Mrs. Chandrani Senaratne, made this observation while delivering the opening statement by Sri Lanka at the Review of the 5th & 6th Periodic Reports of Sri Lanka to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on Monday in Geneva.

She acknowledged that a comprehensive system for the collection and updating of data pertaining to incidents of violence against children disaggregated by different areas, categories of victims and suspects, etc. is still in the process of being developed. 

“This is an area where the Government is concerned about and would require support in terms of capacity building.” 

“We are also concerned about the matter of corporal punishment, and are determined take measures to tackle the issue,” the Leader of the Sri Lanka Delegation told the 77th Session of the CRC. 

She stressed that matters relating to juvenile justice assume high importance in the Government’s programme to protect child rights. 

In this regard, the Secretary said that the Minister of Justice in November 2017 has established a Special Committee on Reforms in Justice for Children, as a follow up to a joint study conducted with UNICEF, to review the recommendations of the assessment report about the status of justice for children in Sri Lanka.

Mrs. Senaratne said it is also significant to note that, during the ongoing Constitutional reform process in Sri Lanka, it has been recommended to give constitutional recognition to a series of key provisions pertaining to rights of the child contained in the CRC and its Optional Protocols.

In addition to these legislative processes, the Government has adopted and is in the process of implementing a number of policies and action plans seeking to implement different areas of work pertaining to the rights of the child. 

These include the National Human Rights Action Plan (2017-2021) which contains a separate chapter on the Rights of the Child, the Policy Framework and National Plan of Action to address Sexual and Gender based Violence (2016-2020) and a National Plan of Action for Children (2016-2020).