A child’s fate

CHILD abuse hits headlines with sickening frequency in Sri Lanka, but new data suggests that victims have to wait as much as six years, often enduing mind-numbing stigma and distress, before they are given justice.

IRIN reported over the weekend that Sri Lanka is taking as long as six years to prosecute criminals who abuse children, a delay that threatens to further traumatise thousands of children whose cases are stuck in the courts.

Officials from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Sri Lanka had noted that as many as 4,000 child abuse cases are before the country’s 34 high courts. The average wait time for a ruling is six years based on a 2010 UNICEF analysis of backlogged cases, and can go up to eight years, according to local NGOs.

According to UNICEF, over 85 per cent of reported abuse cases involving children were of a sexual nature. In 70 per cent of those cases, the attacker was someone known to the family versus the three per cent of reported cases where the attacker was a stranger.

Delays include police taking a long time to complete investigations or sending incomplete files, bottlenecks in the Attorney General’s office in clearing cases to proceed to hearings, and an overload of all types of cases before the courts.

As of late 2010, there were over 650,000 cases of all types being heard in Sri Lankan courts, according to the Ministry of Justice. That same year the Government launched a US$3 million project to set up 60 new courts to help clear the backlog but with limited results.

According to the National Police’s most recent data, there were 334 reported cases of child abuse in 2010, of which by year end, 269 were still being investigated. In January 2012, UNICEF, along with the Attorney General’s office, Ministry of Justice and the Department of Police, launched a programme to hasten the processing of child abuse and rape cases that has trained 900 government workers as of August.

The participants – who included Police, probation officers and people who investigate child labour claims – received information about conducting forensic investigations, gathering evidence for a legal report, and how to work with victims of abuse as well as prevent further exploitation. Training varied from a single day, to one day per month for 12 months, and there were other options.

The aim is to complete investigation and preliminary legal steps within six months of the abuse being reported. Police have pointed out that over the past five years there has been a 20 per cent increase in the number of child abuse cases being reported but this positive is overshadowed by the cumbersome judicial process strangling justice.

One thing all experts agree on is that punishment – harsh punishment at that – is the best deterrent. This means that investigation and case filing has to be speedier not only to punish the offender, but to enable the child to recover from the horrible trauma and return to some version of normalcy. The more publicised and prolonged an abuse case, the more victimised the child becomes.

During the last few months there have been instances of politicians and their relatives being held as suspects for abuse cases. Such politically powerful players also pose the threat of diluting even the existing judicial process requiring extra efficiency in providing those named and unnamed victims justice. Providing adequate resources for fast tracking child abuse cases is the best hope that Sri Lanka’s future generation has.