The Message from the ICCP 25 - Conference Chair 

It is with great pleasure and pride that I write this message as the Conference Chair to the International Conference of Child Protection 2025 and the 3rd International Conference of the Centre for Gender Studies, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka. This conference will bring researchers, academics, practitioners, postgraduate and undergraduate students of medicine, science, social sciences, information technology, humanities, law, and law enforcement to come together to share their experiences, new knowledge on child protection and gender studies. At a time when the country is recovering from a financial crisis, I consider this a pinnacle event to showcase the child protection work in Sri Lanka. This has been evident by receiving over 375 abstracts for the conference. 

Wholistic child protection include three responses: criminal justice, health and psychosocial management.  Therefore, multi and interdisciplinary services and inter-sectoral service providers such as police, scientists (forensic medicine & science), judiciary, as well as health service providers such as paediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, gynaecology, venereology, counselling, probation, and social services have to get together to give quality holistic service. Further, this International congress will pave the way to share the challenges, strengths and weaknesses from each country and learn from each other.  

Most importantly, this conference gave a platform for different agencies to work together. The pre-congress activities including workshop on abstract writing, ethical media reporting and multi-disciplinary / multisectoral management of child abuse enriched the practitioners while academics got linkages to understand the issues related to services. Further collaborating with the UNICEF with their financial support and technical expertise was a learning curve for the Centre for Gender Studies of the Kelaniya University, as well as the National Child Protection Authority. 

Finally, it’s my duty to express my deep appreciation to the organizing committee and the other subcommittees for their hard work and commitment. Further, I invite both national and international participants to engage in a vibrant academic experience at the ICCP 2025 Sri Lanka.