Former Human Rights Trainer for Sri Lanka Army and a senior lecturer of APIIT Law School Marini de Livera stated that introducing sex education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels was essential to change attitudes and create awareness that sexual abuse could not be tolerated in any form.

Speaking to ‘Asian Mirror’ Livera told that there should be a zero tolerance policy of violence against women and children. The state, law enforcement agencies and civil society should work together to combat this courage, she added.

Moreover, speaking about common attitudes towards abuses, she asserted that sexual violence, emotional abuse, cultural violence and economic violence were not properly recognized as forms of violence.  However the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act of 2005 recognizes emotional abuse as a form of violence, she said.

She further said that some social believes and practices also facilitate violence against women and children. For example the belief that child abuse and women abuse happens because of the fault of the child’s mother or the Woman victim is prevalent even today, she stated.

“When such a thing happen many people stress that it is victim’s fault and the victim deserves it for being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” she elaborated. Such beliefs should be changed at least now, if the society really wants to prevent abuses and rapes, she added.

“A Counseling help-line, trained social workers, Counselors and psychiatrists, a help-line for men, rehabilitation for perpetrators at local level is vital for prevention and cure. A tracking system of child abuse from police investigation to conclusion of trial to identify where the bottle-necks are is necessary to provide remedies,” she asserted.