No means no and much more

Sri Lanka national cricketer Dhanushka Gunathilake is currently under arrest in Australia for the alleged crime of rape. According to Australian police, Gunathilake was invited to a 29-year-old woman’s house for consensual sex but he turned violent when she requested him to use protection before the sexual act. He is now accused of assault and rape. 

Any accused, including Gunathilaka has a right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, this incident speaks to a greater problem than one individual accused of a heinous crime and should be a moment of introspection in Sri Lanka where the same individual had been accused of similar crimes in the past without much action being taken. Sexual violence, including rape and numerous forms of gender-based violence occurs all throughout the world irrespective of the level of development. However, in Sri Lanka this is far more concerning because there are multitudes of failures within the State and the society that exacerbate the matter and fail the victims.

Fundamentally the Sri Lankan justice, education, welfare, witness protection and many other support systems fail even to acknowledge gender-based crimes and sexual assaults. Rape and sexual assault remain some of the most difficult crimes to prove in a court of law and the laws have not evolved to reflect the values of the time. It takes years if not decades sometimes even to obtain a conviction, revictimising the victim throughout this long dragged-out process. This is the main reason for victims to ‘suffer silently’ rather than even report the crime. Further, the criminal justice system does not offer significant protections for a victim of sexual violence, offer any psycho-social support to get over the trauma or deliver justice within a reasonable duration of time.

One of the fundamental failures has also been in the education system that still treats sexuality as a taboo subject. Rather than providing the tools for young adults to navigate the accepted, unacceptable and outright illegal parameters of sexual relations, the education system perpetuates archaic values that victim shame and blame the victims in the case of sexual violence. Even attempts to introduce lessons on sexual and reproductive health in the school curricula have been scuttled on numerous occasions. One of those critical lessons taught in other countries is the concept of consent and how at any moment either party to a sexual interaction has the right to say no.

This notion of consent is missing in Sri Lankan family law as well. There is no crime of marital rape in Sri Lanka because our laws have not been able to move beyond the 18th centenary Roman Dutch Law where a woman is assumed to have given consent to sexual relations within a marriage for perpetuality at the time of marriage. Such archaic and sexist notions which conforms a right on husbands to have sexual relations with their wives have been long discarded in many countries.

Hiding behind the guise of tradition and culture Sri Lankans have for long years perpetuated the notion that sexual assault is a result of promiscuity. In this case under reference as well there are already many individuals pointing out that the alleged victims invited her alleged rapist and assaulter to her house and that the interaction was consensual up until the moment it was not. Such opinions, mostly from adult Sri Lankan men, is the best reflection of the lack of understanding, education and a notion of basic human rights and tenets of law that are generally understood by citizens of other countries.

While the case against Gunathilake will proceed in Australia, it is a good opportunity for reflection on the many failures back home on the part of the State and society, that may have contributed to such a heinous crime being allegedly committed by a Sri Lankan national.