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THE SILENCE THAT PROTECTS ABUSERS AND FAILS OUR CHILDREN

BY DAMINTHA GUNASEKERA June 9, 2026

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Between May 2023 and May 2026, complaints were made against 285 different Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka. Over 70 percent of those complaints were for sexual offences. The National Child Protection Authority, Sri Lanka's own child protection body, provided this data in response to a freedom of information request by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. NCPA referrals led to charges against 27 of the accused monks. The agency does not have data on how many were convicted. This is not a rumour. This is not an attack on Buddhism. This is data from Sri Lanka's own institutions. And yet most Sri Lankan media did not report it. Most politicians have said nothing. The silence has been near total. That silence is not incidental. It is chosen. And it is the reason this keeps happening.

The Case That Broke Through

On May 9, 2026, Venerable Pallegama Hemarathana Thero, the 71-year-old Chief Prelate and Custodian of the Atamasthana, overseeing eight of Sri Lanka's most sacred Buddhist sites in Anuradhapura, was arrested over allegations of the repeated rape and sexual abuse of a minor girl. According to the NCPA, the alleged abuse began in 2022 when the victim was 11 years old. She is currently 15. All allegations are denied by his legal representatives. As of May 22, 2026, he is a free man on bail, defended by a senior legal team led by President's Counsel Kalinga Indatissa. The case did not reach court easily.

The NCPA raised repeated complaints about delays in arresting him before seeking urgent judicial intervention. NCPA Attorney-at-Law Sajeewani Abeykoon appeared before the Anuradhapura Chief Magistrate and submitted that urgent judicial intervention had become necessary due to the lack of progress in the investigation and concerns surrounding the safety and protection of the victim. The NCPA's own legal officer stated in open court that the authority had to, in her words, "take a stick and chase the police" to get an arrest made. That statement was made in a court of law by a representative of Sri Lanka's child protection authority. It speaks for itself. The Law and Society Trust has since raised serious procedural and victim protection concerns, noting that Sri Lanka's legal and institutional framework is demonstrating an inability to stand firm and neutral when power and vulnerability collide, even in the early stages of the case.

This Is Not Only About Temples

It would be convenient, and wrong, to frame this as a problem unique to Buddhist institutions. It is not.

Child sexual abuse occurs in other religious institutions. It occurs in schools and tuition classes. It occurs in homes, perpetrated by family members and trusted adults. The institution changes. The silence stays the same. What connects every setting is power, the power of the adult over the child, the power of the institution over the family, the power of social standing over accountability. And in Sri Lanka, that power is rarely challenged by those with the platform and the responsibility to do so. The point that this is not confined to any single institution was reinforced within days. On June 1, 2026, Sri Lanka Police announced that a 21-year-old man from Eragama, described in the police statement as a Moulavi, had been remanded in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl in the Ampara district. The suspect had fled the area following the incident before surrendering to the Ampara Magistrate's Court through legal counsel. He was remanded until June 3, 2026. The All Ceylon Jammiyyathul Ulama subsequently disputed the police's characterisation of the suspect as a Moulavi. Regardless of that specific designation, the pattern is clear, two cases, two different religious communities, within weeks of each other. The institution changes. The silence around child protection in Sri Lanka does not.

The Institutional Failures

There are three distinct layers of failure that allow child abuse to continue with insufficient accountability in Sri Lanka.

The political failure. Politicians across every party and every generation have largely avoided speaking publicly about abuse in religious institutions. The reasons are well understood; religious communities represent significant voting blocs, and these are politically sensitive matters. Whatever the reason, the result is the same: the absence of political leadership on child protection has contributed to a culture where accountability is inconsistent, and victims feel unsupported. This is a pattern that must be examined honestly.

The institutional failure. The police are the frontline of any functioning child protection system. In this case, the NCPA's legal officer stated in court that the authority had to seek urgent judicial intervention due to lack of progress in the investigation. The NCPA, a relatively small agency with limited resources, carried what should have been a police-led investigation to court on its own initiative. This raises serious questions about how cases without an institution as persistent as the NCPA are handled across the country.

The social failure. Stigma in Sri Lanka frequently falls on the victim rather than the perpetrator. Families are sometimes told to stay quiet to protect the family name. Communities can rally around the accused, particularly when the accused holds religious or social status, and treat the victim's disclosure as a source of shame rather than an act of courage. This social environment does not happen by accident. It is shaped by every community leader, every media outlet, and every public figure who treats silence as the appropriate response.

The System That Exists, and Its Limits

The NCPA exists. Sri Lanka has laws against child sexual abuse. The legal framework, on paper, provides meaningful protections. What is missing is the consistent institutional will and community environment to enforce it. The NCPA Chairperson, retired Justice Preethi Inoka Ranasinghe, told OCCRP that cases are rising in Sri Lanka and that much abuse, including by religious figures, continues to go unreported. The 285 complaints in three years is not the full picture. It is the visible surface of something much larger. In cases of this nature generally, there is frequently a significant disparity between the legal resources available to the accused and those available to the victim. This structural imbalance is something Sri Lanka's legal aid framework needs to address directly.

What Needs to Change

This is not a call for an attack on any religion or any institution as a whole. The vast majority of religious leaders serve their communities with integrity and dedication. The argument here is not against religion. It is against the protection of perpetrators within any institution, and the political and social silence that enables it. What Sri Lanka needs is not new legislation in the first instance. It needs consistent enforcement of what already exists. It needs politicians who are willing to speak, publicly, unambiguously, and across party lines, about child protection regardless of the religious or social status of the accused. It needs a police force that treats child abuse complaints with the same urgency regardless of who the suspect is. It needs communities that support victims rather than silence them. It needs media that reports these cases as the serious public interest matters, they are.

A Generational Responsibility

I am writing this as a Sri Lankan who left this country at 13 and came back by choice twelve years later because I believed the work here mattered. I am writing it as someone who works inside the political system and understands exactly why politicians approach this issue carefully, and who believes that understanding does not excuse continued silence. The generation of Sri Lankans entering public life now has a choice. We can inherit the silence of those who came before us. Or we can decide that the protection of children is not a political calculation but a basic human responsibility that comes before every other consideration. The only thing that changes this pattern is people speaking. More victims supported when they come forward. More communities refusing to protect perpetrators regardless of their status. More leaders willing to say clearly and publicly that no religious standing, no social position, and no political consideration justifies silence when a child has been harmed. I hope our generation makes that choice. The children who cannot speak for themselves are counting on someone to.

About The Writer:

Damintha Gunasekera is a political affairs professional and co-founder of The Kolam Collective, a Colombo-based communications agency. He holds a Master's degree in International Affairs from George Washington University and serves as Senior Aide to a Member of Parliament. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not represent the views of any institution or employer.

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