The U.K. Foreign Office, in its latest human rights report, prepared from the accounts of Human Rights activists, said that despite significant steps by the Sri Lankan government to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, sexual exploitation of children remained a problem.
“According to local media, in 2011 police recorded the highest number of child abuse and rape cases ever seen in Sri Lanka. Some estimates also suggested that up to 6,000 children were exploited for commercial sex. The Department of Probation and Child Care Services provided protection to child victims of abuse and sexual exploitation, but there were no comprehensive programmes to address the problem,” the report said.
There are identified centres in Sri Lanka which have been infamous for paedophilia, and enforcement has not always kept pace with the offenders, local activists who spoke to The Hindu said.
