Page 31 - KDU INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

KDU International Journal of Criminal Justice (KDUIJCJ)
Volume I | Issue II| July 2024

of neighbours when the abuse came intolerable and return after Nelum’s
husband went to work. On the day on the incident the suspect was looking

for Nelum’s Mother who was hiding in the jungle nearby. She armed

herself with a bottle of acid when she finally came out of her hiding place.
He tried to assault her, and she threw acid at him, and then Nelum

attacked him from behind with an axe and killed him. Both Nelum and her

mother are in prison, and the two young girls are with relatives. The
Women Development Officers should be out in the field working with

communities and not confine themselves to their offices. Their numbers

should be displayed at schools, hospitals and health clinics and other
prominent places.

It is clear here that if Nelum met with the Woman Development Officer in

her locality she could have obtained a protection order and a divorce. It is

also vital that the field Officers are connected to the legal community in
the locality The Woman Development Officer could have linked up Nelum

with an organization that could give her Income Generation Training so

that she could stand on her own feet and provide for her two daughters
and give them a sound education.

3.0. Conclusion

Contributing to a publication of the Judges’ Training Institute of Sri Lanka,

Justice Neil Iddawela the then Deputy Secretary General of Parliament
17
writing about the two-year-old Victims of Crime and Witnesses Act

stressed the importance of community support in the implementation of

17 “Assistance to and Protection of Victims under Crime and Witnesses Act” Judges Journal
Volume IV July (2017) p52
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