Sunday Times 2
EU head Moreno encourages more reforms to ensure child justice
View(s):By Kapila Bandara
European Union Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Carmen Moreno has zoomed in on legal and institutional challenges in Sri Lanka’s justice system for children and encouraged policy makers to support reforms, to strengthen the legislative framework, and improve the capacity of institutions and professionals who work with children.
She made the observations at the International Conference on Child Protection in Colombo on Friday.
“The primary aspiration of any justice system must not be retribution, but reintegration into society. Justice for children must be guided by principles of proportionality, including age and gender appropriate treatment, and take at heart the need to care and protect the dignity and future development of children,” Ms Moreno was quoted as saying in a statement.
The EU Delegation to Sri Lanka and Maldives supports Sri Lanka’s justice sector reforms through JURE, or Justice Reform programme since 2022. One important achievement by JURE is legal reform, which raised the minimum age of imprisonment, so that minors are not sent to adult prisons but instead housed in institutions under the Department of Probation and Childcare Services.
The US$18.2 million (Rs 5.4 billion) JURE projet is funded by the EU and carried out by UNDP and UNICEF. It was designed to improve Sri Lanka’s justice system’s independence, accountability, and efficiency. The goal is to address systemic challenges in access to justice, judicial transparency, and institutional responsiveness, particularly benefiting women, children, and marginalised communities.
The programme has assisted reforms by strengthening legal protections, improving justice system coordination, and improving ways of rehabilitation.
Support has been given to develop and amend 5 laws including the Victims Protection Act, (giving effect to Singapore Convention on Mediation), the bill on Civil and Commercial Dispute Resolution using Mediation, an Amendment to the Mediation Board Act to make diversion available to more children by raising the financial margin for eligible offences, and the amendment to the Children and Young Persons Ordinance that extends certain protections of the Ordinance previously available only to under 16-year-olds to all children under the age of 18 years.
The conference is hosted by the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Kelaniya jointly with the National Child Protection Authority. It is supported by the European Union through UNICEF Sri Lanka.
Unicef has long advocated the best interest of Sri Lanka’s children whether they be victims or witnesses of crime and for children who run into trouble with the law. It has supported child-sensitive and child-friendly services from the country’s law enforcers, the juvenile justice system, and institutions.
Among other things, UNICEF has trained 104 Magistrate and District Court Judges (49 women, 55 men) on child protection and child-friendly justice services. UNICEF has also strengthened the administrative data collection systems of the Ministry of Justice, Department of Probation and Childcare Services and Sri Lanka Police.
UNICEF Sri Lanka Acting Representative, Begoña Arellano, said: “With strong evidence, effective leadership, coordination, and investment, Sri Lanka can establish a protection system that benefits every child. Academia plays a crucial role in informing policy to address violence against children.’’
Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara, addressed the government’s “commitment to reform systems to focus on the best interests of children and ensure that every victim has access to child-friendly justice’’.