Child abuse on the rise, but criminals are going unpunished

Reports of child abuse and infringements of child rights in Sri Lanka have more than trebled since 2005, while wrongdoers are seldom brought to justice, according to Jagath Wellawatta, head of the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA).

In 2005, the authority received 315 reports of child abuse and child abuse-related incidents; in 2008, there were 1, 271 such reports. In the first three months of 2009 alone more than 250 cases of child abuse were reported.

Mr. Wellawatta told The Sunday Times that the police tend to give these cases low priority in view of the current security situation in the country. He said it was a matter of grave concern that child abuse and the abduction of children were on the increase.

"The police are very focused these days on national security," he said. "The National Child Protection Authority has its own police division, but we have only 15 officers, not enough manpower to take on all the child abuse cases in the country."

Although many police stations have a Women and Children's Bureau, with a bureau police officer in charge, most stations are understaffed, and child problems tend not to get the attention they demand.
This lack of police action has had unfortunate results; there have been violent confrontations between suspects and the police, often ending in shootouts and deaths. Mr. Wellawatta also pointed out that police inaction often resulted in the public taking the law into their own hands.

"Suspects in such cases seldom end up in court," he said. "What's happening is that these suspects remain at large, instead of being in police custody, and often end up being killed in shootouts with the police. Sometimes innocent people get killed. Meanwhile, the families of the child victims feel some satisfaction, saying justice has been done. They say they have no confidence in a legal system that repeatedly fails to bring such criminals to justice."

The NCPA report says that delays on the part of the police and the Attorney General's department has meant that some cases are not heard till five and 10 years later.

"Child abuse cases are stacking up at the Attorney-General's office. Each case goes back and forth between the police and the AG's office for months on end, even years, until the documentation is completed," Mr. Wellawatta said. A sense of shame on the part of the victims and their families is another reason why many cases of child abuse go unpunished.

He said victims prefer to avoid the publicity and social embarrassment, as well as the considerable psychological trauma, involved when cases come to court.

"There have been cases, especially rape incidents, in which both the child and the parents are reluctant to come forward and testify," he said.

The NCPA recommends that awareness-raising programmes about child abuse and the need to report them be held for children, parents and teachers.

Meanwhile, the NCPA said it was working with the police to facilitate interaction between the police and the AG's department, and speed up the legal process.