Rape tops crime charts as domestic violence soars in 2024

Rape remains the most frequently reported crime in Sri Lanka with 2,252 cases of sexual harassment and close to 130,000 cases of domestic violence in 2024 alone; a significant increase from the pre-pandemic years.

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However, unreported crimes still far outnumber those that are reported, as many survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) fear victim blaming, inadequate support, or insensitive handling of their cases by law enforcement, which leads to a culture of silence surrounding these crimes.

In this vein, and to address the growing necessity for capacity building and training of law enforcement officers to handle and report these cases, a Letter of Agreement (LOA) was signed recently with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka and the National Police Academy, towards capacitating the officers of the Bureau for the Prevention of Abuse of Women and Children of the Sri Lanka Police as a step in Sri Lanka's journey to becoming a society that is safe for women and girls. This milestone is a part of the ongoing project titled 'Ensuring Justice for Victim-survivors of SGBV in Sri Lanka' with the generous support of the Government of Canada and implemented in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Government of Sri Lanka.