Disclaimer: The following content includes real stories with graphic references to topics such as sexual violence. 

After Nilushani’s* mother and father separated, she lived with her father and brother. When her father, a drug addict, raped her, the distraught young teenager informed her mother by phone. Her mother then took on her guardianship. 

While living with her mother, stepfather and their children, Nilushani was upset to discover that her mother engaged in online sex work. After her mother and stepfather began to argue and separated, Nilushani started living with her stepfather. When economic problems emerged, despite being only a child, she too began to work as a sex worker.

The police would eventually found out that dozens of men had used the underage girl as a sex worker. Indictments were filed against each guilty party based on section 364 of the Penal Code which highlights that sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16, with or without her consent, amounts to rape.

Nilushani was supported in providing her statement via contemporaneous audio-visual linkage, a means of linking a court with a victim or witness through audio and video. One of the men has been arrested and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and a fine of LKR 2.5 million. More than 40 additional cases are currently ongoing, but Nilushani will not have to come face to face with the perpetrators in her pursuit of justice.

The Support to Justice Sector (JURE) project, funded by the European Union, jointly implemented by UNDP and UNICEF Sri Lanka, and facilitated by the Ministry of Justice, is supporting victims and witnesses of crime, including many women and girls like Nilushani who have faced sexual and gender-based violence. The project, implemented in close partnership with key justice sector organizations and stakeholders, provides a comprehensive package of support to the Sri Lankan judicial system.

JURE has equipped the justice sector with victim-friendly infrastructure such as contemporaneous audio-visual linkage, which supports victims and witnesses of crime in giving evidence remotely. This minimizes revictimization caused by unnecessary exposure to the public and to perpetrators during court hearings, while safeguarding the confidentiality of the victim’s location.

The JURE project has further supported the establishment of Sri Lanka's first safehouse under the National Authority for the Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses, which officially began operations in February 2025. This facility aims to provide a secure and supportive environment for victims and witnesses with essential services such as shelter, counselling, and legal assistance.

JURE is committed to enhancing access to justice for all, particularly for women, girls and those in vulnerable situations. As the world marks Women's History Month, JURE aims to foster a justice system which equitably protects citizens’ rights.

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the individual.