With the shocking news of child abuse reported in Sri Lanka continuously authorities are focusing on establishing high courts at the provincial level to resolve cases that related to children.
Sujatha Alahapperuma, Attorney-at-Law, Deputy Chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority says that plan is underway to establish nine Children’s Magistrates’ Courts and nine Children’s High Courts in the nine provinces of the country.
She made the remarks at a special press conference held at the Department of Government Information on Tuesday, July 20 on the topic of child abuse and the social impact of the media.
She pointed out that at present there are only two juvenile courts in Battaramulla and Jaffna and stressed that it was not sufficient at all.
She also said that Children have to deal with adults while resolving children’s cases and due to the high number of cases; there is a tendency to postpone children’s cases in the Magistrates’ Courts. To prevent such problems she has already proposed to the government to establish Magistrates’ Courts and High Courts especially for children at the provincial level.
Video evidence
In Sri Lanka, where a child is abused in every two hours, The Cabinet, on Monday (July 12), also approved the establishment of nine units at the provincial level to record video evidence of abused children.
On October 2, 2020, the Minister of Justice has informed the Child Protection Authority to take steps to amend the outdated laws that relating to children. The Deputy Chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority, Attorney-at-Law Sujatha Alahapperuma further stated that the amendment process has begun and five committees consisting with Presidents’ Counsels, Professors, etc have been formed to amend the laws imposed on children in the country.
The Deputy Chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority stated that many of Sri Lanka’s ordinances have different interpretations on who is the child, and on the advice of the Minister of Justice after bringing it all to one level, a child is recognized as a person under the age of 18 in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Children, The Deputy Chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority stated that we have proposed to amend the age limit for child in our all 13 Acts as 18 years.
She pointed out that the second committee was appointed to establish a child-friendly judiciary, adding that these five committees would work to amend the law in a child-friendly manner.
Police 24 hour internet patrol
Police Media Spokesman Ajith Rohana stated that the officers of the Computer Crimes Division and the Police Media Division are monitoring cyber crimes and child abuse twenty-four hours.
According to the Government Information Department, investigations are being carried out on abuses and other cyber crimes on YouTube as well as social media networks.
However, police who are checking the internet on 24 hours of the day have passed six months to obtain information on child abuse. That too was according to a complaint received by the police.
As previously described to the media by the police media spokesman himself the first suspect who accused for sell 15-year-old girl through online platform since January was arrested on June 7th.
The first suspect in the online sale of a 15-year-old girl, who has been running since January, was arrested on June 7, a police spokesman himself told the media earlier. Even this is due to a tip given by a civil citizen to Mt. Lavinia Chief Inspector Dileep Perera. Police Media Spokesman, Senior DIG Attorney-at-Law Ajith Rohana further stated that enforcing the law alone is not enough to curb child abuse that is taking place on the internet as well as on a daily basis also people should also be aware of this.
The Senior DIG has stated that although the number of child abuses in Sri Lanka is very low compared to India and other countries in South Asia, the police hope to reduce it to zero level.
DIG in charge of Crime and Organized Crime Division Priyantha Jayakody citing the crime statistics for 2019 revealed that in 2020, a child is abused in every two hours in Sri Lanka and at least four rape cases are reported daily.
Complaints exceeds number of twelve thousand.
Prof. Muditha Vidanapathirana, Chairman of the National Child Protection Authority, stated on media in early July that he had received 12,165 child abuse complaints in the past year and a half.
According to the authority, the number of child abuse complaints received in the first five months of this year was 4,000.
The National Child Protection Authority requests you to call the 1929 hotline to report child abuse.