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Child abuse in Sri Lanka: No separate sex offender registry  

14 Aug 2021

  • Offences against children in common registry 
  • Sri Lanka ratified UNCRC Optional Protocols  
  • Lanzarote Convention may have best practices: NCPA 
 BY Yoshitha Perera   Sri Lanka has no separate registry for offenders who have committed sexual offences against children, including child abuse and child pornography-related crimes, and all sex offences committed against children are included in a common registry which is maintained under the Prevention of Crimes Ordinance, No. 2 of 1926, The Sunday Morning learnt.   Sharing her views with The Sunday Morning, National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) Director – Legal, Attorney-at-Law Preethika Sakalasooriya said that the law had been amended in 2017 to include all forms of child abuse under the said Ordinance which maintains such a registry since the British colonial era.   She added: “All forms of child abuse including crimes pertaining to child pornography and child exploitation are in the Prevention of Crimes Ordinance as amended, and the offenders’ details are recorded in the registry, which notes down offences that require the offenders’ fingerprints to be obtained, and that is maintained by the Police Crime/Criminal Records Division.”  Sakalasooriya further explained that through the recorded data, the officials could track the patterns of criminality and observe whether the same person had committed other such offences or not.  She explained: “We don’t call this particular registry a sex offender registry but it is called the Fingerprintable Offences Registry. This division is the legal authority which has the mandate to maintain such a registry.”  Speaking about international treaties on the subject that Sri Lanka is party to, she explained: “If it is pertaining to child porn, we have only signed and ratified the Optional Protocols to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which gives additional coverage or protection for children who get exposed to child pornography. That is the only treaty that we have signed and ratified with regard to the protection of children from pornography.”


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