'National policy for child protection essential to curb abuse'

By Kurulu Kariyakarawana

Today is Children's Day. Although various countries recognise it on various dates through out the calendar year, the largest group of countries, 49 countries observe Children's Day on June 01. In Sri Lanka we mark World Children's Day on October 01. Universal Children's Day proclaimed by the United Nations is commemorated on November 20 observed by ten countries together.

A little boy being unrelentlessly caned

On all these days including today children around the world are remembered, celebrated and numerous programs conducted to initiate, uplift and adopt action to benefit and promote the welfare of children. To bring awareness to children around the globe who have succumbed to violence due to abuse, exploitation and discrimination. Children are used as labourers in some countries, in armed conflict, living on the streets, suffering due to differences be it religion, minority issues or disabilities.

But it is questionable how sufficient it is to talk about children and their welfare only on these dates and as children fall into a category that should be given constant attention to their development and well being. It is sad to bring to the notice of the readers that even at this moment, a child is being abused in some part of the country. The most recent incident reported two days ago where according to media reports a 14-year-old boy has allegedly been molested by a soldier at a cadeting camp. The National Cadet Corps in charge of the training camp immediately arrested the soldier following a complaint lodged by the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA). The case is being investigated by the NCPA at present and the soldier is to face legal action.

The NCPA is the sole body that is legally empowered to protect children from abuse in Sri Lanka under the NCPA Act No. 50 of 1998. The Act has also vested powers to the authority to create a National Child Protection Policy to stop and curb child abuse, to safeguard children who are victims of abuse as well as to treat them medically and psychologically. Although a national authority was set up 16 years ago, a national policy is yet to be passed through Parliament where preparatory work is being carried out at present. A fully designed draft of the National Child Protection Policy was officially presented to the country's first lady Mrs. Shiranthi Rajapaksa on October 01, 2013 on World Children's Day.

The draft is currently open for public opinion and views which will be amended accordingly and presented to Parliament to get the approval before the end of this year. With the guiding principle of "Giving our children a childhood that they can be proud of". The draft of the national policy is created on four guiding beliefs of recognition of children's best interests, protection against any form of harm, exploitation or abuse, coordinated response to protection and early intervention and prevention.

So what does child protection really mean. According to Article 1 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989, "every person below the age of 18 is defined as a child". Child protection is identified as the prevention of and response to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence against children.

All children have the right to protection and they have the right to be physically and emotionally safe and protected at all times. The family is the natural origin of protection for building a safe and loving homely environment for children. The responsibility thereafter, for building a safe environment outside the home lies with the schools and the community. Children should be protected in the family, school and community so that they can survive, grow, learn and develop to their potential. But the problem starts when this fundamental natural safe environments are breached for various reasons and children become victims within their own trusted environments.

Child abuse comes in four different forms such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological or emotional abuse and neglect. Physical abuse involves physical aggression, directed at a child by an adult where harm is caused to the child's health, existence, development and dignity. These forms of abuse include assault such as hitting, kicking, violent shaking, biting, burning, strangulation and poisoning. Secondly sexual abuse is considered as using a child for sexual purposes by an adult or an adolescent without his or her acceptance.

Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities, exposing genitals indecently to a child, displaying pornography, contacting sexually with a child, contacting physically with the child's genitals, viewing of the child's genitalia without physical contact or using a child to produce child pornography.

Having negative concepts about children, harassing children verbally and non-verbally can be defined as emotional and psychological abuse. Incapability of providing love and affection that a child hopes in their childhood is also considered as emotional abuse where children feel unsafe about themselves which will lead them to an unhappy life. Neglecting is also considered a serious type of abuse.

Child neglect is the failure of a parent or other person with responsibility for the child to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care or supervision to the degree that the child's health, safety and well being are threatened. Neglect is also a lack of attention from the people surrounding a child and the non provision of relevant and adequate necessities for the child's survival, which would be a lack of attention, love and nurturing the child in a conducive environment.

As the sole body empowered by an Act of parliament to look into child- related issues the NCPA is responsible to maintain a series of activities referred to in the Act.

The functions of the authority are to advise the government in the formulation of a national policy on the prevention of child abuse and the protection and treatment of children who are victims of such abuse, to advise the government on measures for the prevention of child abuse, to advise the government on measures for the protection of the victims of such abuse, to create an awareness of the right of a child to be protected from abuse and the methods of preventing child abuse, to recommend legal, administrative or other reforms required for the effective implementation of the national policy for the prevention of child abuse, to monitor the implementation of laws relating to all forms child abuse, to monitor the progress of all investigations and criminal proceedings relating to child abuse, to prepare a national database on child abuse. One of the effective services launched by the Authority is to set up a telephone hotline to receive complaints of all types of child abuse. Named as 1929 Child Line which was introduced in 2010, the hotline enables anybody to call up and inform of any unlawful act being committed towards a child.

The launching of this line was a great success as the authority had started getting numerous complaints related to abuse since 2010 and all those complaints were recorded, monitored and carefully investigated prior to seeking remedial measures.

Explaining the process, NCPA's Manager Planning and Information Ediriweera Gunasekara said that a special police investigation unit has been set up within the authority to act on complaints that are received from countrywide.

When a complaint is received if it is in close proximity to the special unit, officers will immediately visit the scene and begin inquiries whereas if the incident has occured relatively far away, the nearest police station will be informed and follow-up action will be taken.

It is compulsory for every police station acting on a case related to child abuse to attend the scene, inquire, investigate and submit a report within 48 hours after being informed of the complaint to the NCPA.

When a child is found abused the Authority would take control of the victim immediately and if necessary will detain the child in a special care facility in Colombo until the legal proceedings are over.

After that the child will be sent back to home (if the abuse was not related to home front) and if not the child will be sent to special care homes until the child becomes an adult or ready to operates on its own.

The authority also maintains a database of the instances of child abuse since 2010 to date that had been reported through out the country. These figures are publicised in the authority's annual report up to 2011 of two years. However due to certain incompetency prevailed within the body had failed to issue annual reports for the last two years since 2011 and as a result the facts and figures of incidents and complaints related to child abuse have not been publicised.

But it is learnt that for the past four years the NCPA had received around 150, 000 complaints of child abuse and according to the official statistics of 2011 there had been 6076 complaints reported. Most of the complaints are received from Colombo, Kalutara, Galle and Kurunegala districts. Out of the nature of the abuse cruelty to children tops the figures with 1156 complaints with 1086 violations of child security and 779 cases of violating essential education to children. There had been 190 instances of serious sexual abuse.

With a vision of creating a child-friendly and protective environment for children the NCPA headed by its team of professionals and the Chairman Anoma Dissanayake are working towards a future to ensure that the children are free from all forms of abuse. To achieve this goal the setting up of the National Child Protection Policy is vital and the assistance of the state and public sector is essential to bring it out.

“If a child is given love, he becomes loving ... If he’s helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home … he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others”.

- Dr. Joyce Brothers
(Good Housekeeping, August 2010)