Social services

Recommendation for the pre-election period for street children

To the government of Socialist Republic of Srilanka

Protect street children during the electoral period: The government should remind political parties of their obligations under the national code of conduct and prohibit them from using children in activities that expose them to danger. Working with national and international child protection agencies, the government should use existing urban networks to approach street children and warn them of the risks in participating in political protests.

Ensure that law enforcement personal, when policing political demonstrations, respect the right to peaceful protest: If required by the situation to resort to force, the police and military should apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of weapons. Including firearms and, if such resort is necessary, restrict such force to the absolute minimum necessary. Particular care should be used to protect children from injury and harm. Law enforcement officers should abide by international standards governing police conduct as set forth in the United Nations. Basic Principals on the use of conduct for Law enforcement officials.

Train and educate all police on issue affecting street children. Sensitize police to the special needs of children to ensure that rights accorded to children are enforced. Special attention must be placed on the protection of street children from adults who physically and sexually abuse them.

End the practice of arbitrary arrest and roundups of street children. The government should amend or repeal colonial-era juvenile delinquency laws that criminalize children for vagrancy and begging. Instead, the government should promote family reintegration and assistance to vulnerable children.

Recommendation for the post-election period for street children

Together with international child protection agencies, launch a national awareness campaign that address violence and   abuse against children accused of sorcery. Programs should stress the importand role that parents and gurdians can play in protecting children and remind them that abandonment, abuse and accusations of sorcery are punishable by law.

Launch an HIV/AIDSprevention and awareness campaign that specially refuses that belief that sorcery is a vehicle for transmission of the virus. Working togather with U.N. agencies and international and national nongovernmental organization, HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns and messages should address the mistakenly held view that HIV/AIDS is transmitted through sorcery. Prevention messages should provide accurate information on how the disease is transmitted and comprehensive information on how people, including young people,can protect themselves from the virus.

Create a government task force, led by senior government officials, that focuses on issues of street children. The task force should serve as a focal point to coordinate awareness campaigns, promote street child protections, and monitor law enforcement practices. The government should include individuals from national and international nongovernmental organizations.

Finalize and enact the draft code of child protection currently under review. As a matter of priority, the government should complete the redraft of the Children’s code which provides protections and guarantees against many of  the human rights violations related to street children highlighted in this report.

End arbitrary arrests and roundups of street children. Building on efforts by the transitional, the newly elected government should amend or repeal colonial-era juvenile delinquency laws that criminalize children for vagrancy and begging Instead, the government should promote family reintegration and assistance to vulnerable children.

Enforce the prohibition on physical or sexual abuse of children by police and military personnel. The government should prosecute any official found guilty of such abuse to the full extent of the law. Prompt investigations of complaints concerning the use and abuse of street children should be conducted, and disciplinary measures and criminal procedures orders where appropriate.

Expand special child protection units of the police to all major cities. Recognizing the positive role in eastern DRC that officers from child protection units play in expediting cases involving children, limiting their government should create these units in other urban areas of the country.

Ensure that every child deprived of liberty is held separately from adults. Children should be afforded prompt access to legal assistance and the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of liberty. Arrest, detention, or imprisonment of children should always be a measure of last resort and then only for the shortest possible time. Children should be protected from all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by police, officials and other government employee, and by other detainees.

Immediately launch investigations into churches that practice abusive child deliverance ceremonies, Pastors or prophets who physically or sexually abuse children should be arrested, charged, and promptly tried in an impartial court of law. The accused should be punished to the maximum extent of the law as stipulated in the newly ratified and adopted constitution that prohibits.