The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has written to the Inspector General of Police asking him to set up a dedicated police unit for older persons — the second time it has made the request, after the first went unanswered for more than three years.
The statement was issued under the signature of the Commission’s chairman, retired Supreme Court Justice L. T. B. Dehideniya, NewsFirst reported. The Commission said it had observed a growing pattern of rights violations against senior citizens driven by social and economic factors, affecting both those living in households and those in institutional care.
The part that makes it news: it is a repeat
The Commission’s own statement is more specific than the newsroom account. The HRCSL says it “has once again called upon” the IGP, and that it had previously made a written recommendation on 11 May 2023 for exactly such a unit — a recommendation it states “has not yet been implemented.” The fresh approach was made by letter dated 1 October 2026, three days before the story was reported.
The Commission frames the request around demographics rather than any single incident. The share of Sri Lankans aged 60 and over, the HRCSL says, stood at about 12.7% of the population in 2014 and is projected to reach 25.7% by 2050 — a transition it argues requires stronger institutional machinery.
It attributes older people’s vulnerability to social and economic circumstances, changes in family structures, and internal and overseas migration — the last a pointer to households where working-age members have left the country.
The Commission is explicit that it is not criticising police performance: it “recognises the important role already performed” by the force, and argues a dedicated unit would make responses to complaints involving older persons more coordinated and timely. The letter was sent under the Commission’s statutory powers in the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No. 21 of 1996.
Not reported
Neither account says whether the IGP has responded, what the 2023 recommendation proposed in operational terms, or what the unit would cost or be staffed with. Neither gives figures for complaints involving older victims, so the scale of the problem the Commission describes is not quantified in either document. No police comment was reported.
One inconsistency is worth flagging: the HRCSL’s web page dates the earlier recommendation to 11 May 2023 in its text, while the attached document is filed under a 2022 date. The body text is used here.
