With your help we provide education and training to teachers and students, awareness and empowerment to the general public and advocacy and advisory to the government of Sri Lanka on juvenile justice reforms.
Sri Lanka is the only pathfinder country of South Asia committed to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.2, end violence against children as per the 2005 regional consultation of the UN. In 2024 Sri Lanka made four pledges at the first Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence against Children conducted in Bogota; the foremost was to implement legal reforms to abolish corporal punishment in all settings.
In 2017, a Study Child Disciplinary Methods Practiced in Schools in Sri Lanka conducted by National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) confirmed 80% of students are subjected to at least one episode of corporal punishment in one school term, 53% to physical abuse and 72.5% to psychological aggression.
SCCT conducts extensive National Level Training to strengthen teacher-student relationship, improve psycho-social wellbeing and non-violent conflict resolution via positive discipline strategies to end physical and verbal punishment within schools in Sri Lanka.
Stop Child Cruelty Trust (SCCT) works with local partners, media and public to raise awareness on protecting and promoting child rights focusing on ending violence against children including corporal punishment.
Physical punishment is normalized and justified in societies across all ethnicities and social strata, which requires sensitive and sustained efforts to change attitudes.
SCCT has conducted several spectacular campaigns annually to maintain public interest resulting in child protection and ending violence against children has elevated to a daily topic of discussion; a definite shift in pendulum with change in attitudes has been observed with many adults, including teachers denouncing the heinous practice of corporal punishment openly on social media.
A media conference is conducted every year to keep the public informed of progress and critical issues requiring support. We make sure children are at the heart of the campaign giving a platform for their creative thoughts via annual art competition.
SCCT work in partnership with government and non-government organizations both locally and internationally committed to protect and promote child rights and enhance policy making and legislative reforms.
Our Founder Chairperson has been appointed to several key committees on juvenile justice reforms and education reforms. We have actively participated in several parliamentary committee discussions on introducing compulsory comprehensive sexuality and relationship education, safe and enabling school environments and expediting backlog of thousands of cases of child abuse.
