COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
CHILDCARE AND PROTECTION
See also subsection Health and welfare below
21.29 In UNICEF‘s comments to the UN‘s Universal Periodic Review of Sri Lanka which was
taking place during 2008, though the document itself is undated, (accessed 20
September 2010) 421 , it was reported that:
―The protection of children is a concern. Children in contact with the law are often revictimised,
this includes both child victims of abuse and neglect and also child
offenders. This takes the form of ill treatment, at times extending to torture of child
offenders, delays, separation from families, incarceration, disruption of education and
lack of attention to their therapeutic needs. Trainings carried out so far have addressed
the attitudes and skills of individual service providers but failed to develop standards
and procedures which would enable a uniform protective environment to all children in
contact with the law. Legal reforms have generally been top down and they have not
taken into account the views and experiences of children and service providers. The
strengthening of practice must be supplemented with a continuous review of law and
policy, institutionalized training and the provision of necessary infrastructural support.
Key issue is that the age of criminal responsibility is 8yrs with the courts having
discretion to extend to 12 yrs depending on the subjective assessment of level of
maturity.‖
21.30 On 16 August 2010 the Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka) 422 reported that the Probation and Child
Care Services (DPCCS) Department had stated that ―More than 500 cases of child
abuse have been reported in the past six months from some 420 government and
privately maintained children‘s homes in the country…‖
21.31 The U.S. Department of Labor‘s 2010 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor 423 ,
dated September 2011, noted that:
―The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) is an independent agency under the
Ministry of Child Development and Women‘s Affairs (MCDWA). It shares responsibility
with the National Steering Committee for coordinating action to protect children. This
body‘s mandate includes formulating policies on child abuse and exploitation,
coordinating groups that combat child abuse and exploitation, conducting research and
mobilizing resources. The NCPA is mandated to assist children who are victims of
physical and sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and armed conflict. The NCPA and the
Women and Children‘s Bureau of the Sri Lankan Police (WCBSLP) are the key
agencies responsible for coordinating efforts to combat child trafficking, forced child
labor, commercial sexual exploitation of children and the use of children in illicit
421 UNICEF, Comments to the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of Sri Lanka, undated
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session2/LK/UNICEF_LKA_UPR_2008_UnitedNations
ChildrensFund_uprsubmission.pdf date accessed: 20 September 2010
422 Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka), Child abuse in children’s homes: 16 August 2010
http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/news/front-page-news/18600.html date accessed 8 October
2010
423 U.S. Department of Labor’s 2010 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor , September 2011
(accessed via ecoinet) http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/90_1317902661_2011-10-03-usdol-child-labor-
2010.pdf date accessed 2 February 2012, p700-701
164 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.