• Enhanced 1929 Helpline, integrated case mgt., child-friendly courts with child witness rooms, included

The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, with support from the European Union (EU) through the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) yesterday (17) launched an initiative to support children who have experienced violence.

The new model service will ensure fast, child-sensitive support to child victims of violence, from the point when the case is reported to the Police, helplines or others, until the child is linked with sustained care and protection mechanisms. The model service, launched in Kandy, includes six flagship initiatives of local and national scale. These improvements include enhancing the 1929 Helpline, introducing integrated case management, enhancing support services for children, improving the efficiency of justice processes, enhancing practices for taking evidence from children, and introducing child-friendly courts with child witness rooms. 

The model service for child victims of violence introduces a set of changes, including digital innovations. One of the first digital innovations was introduced in the Kandy High Court (HC). New child-friendly court facilities, refurbished in an age-appropriate way and equipped with modern audio-visual technology, enable children to testify from a separate room within the court premises, operationalising the recent amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure (June of this year). This protects a child witness from direct confrontation with the perpetrators, thus minimising trauma. The operationalisation of the model service for child victims of violence is supported by the EU under the Support to Justice Sector Project (JURE).

Minister of Justice, attorney Harshana Nanayakkara, speaking on this initiative, said: “This is an important step towards specialising HCs for children.”

The EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka Carmen Moreno highlighted the role of the JURE project: “Violence against children remains a serious concern and demands immediate action.”