Article

On 1 January 2024, the President of Sri Lanka and the Cabinet Minister of Women and Child Affairs and Social Empowerment implemented the Children and Young Persons (Amendment) Act, No. 39 of 2022, published in Extraordinary Gazette notification No. 2366/09 of 8 January 2024. Yet the people responsible for child protection, including the National Child Protection Authority, the Sri Lanka Police, and the Department of Probation and Child Care Services, appeared unaware that the law had come into force.

The article argues that this silence reflects a deeper problem: child protection reforms can be passed on paper, but without public awareness and institutional follow-through, they do not reach the children they are meant to protect.

State party obligations

Sri Lanka ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991 and has repeatedly committed to ending violence against children, including corporal punishment. The country was also recognized in 2017 as a South Asian pathfinding nation for Sustainable Development Goal 16.2, but the National Plan to End Violence Against Children lost momentum soon after its launch.

Why is Sri Lanka playing hide-and-seek?

The amendment to the Children and Young Persons Ordinance is significant because it extends child protection to all children under 18, bringing the law closer to the universal definition of a child. It also repeals the section that had allowed corporal punishment by parents, teachers, or guardians.

Why would the Department of Probation and Child Care Services object?

The older law treated 16 to 18-year-olds differently and left some children in adult prisons without proper safeguarding. SCCT and the Child Protection Alliance argued that the new law creates an opportunity to move toward rehabilitation, family-based care, and restorative justice instead of punishment.

Will the authorities comply?

Implementation is the real test. Sri Lanka still struggles to treat the child as a rights holder, and the next step must be proper training, resources, and coordination across justice, probation, education, and child welfare systems. Without that, even progressive reforms risk becoming invisible victories.

The piece closes by calling the amendment a major step forward, but warns that unless the authorities commit to active implementation, the law will remain a missed opportunity instead of a new era of protection for children.