But the electoral organizer of the relevant party threatened Tharangani and asked her to withdraw her nomination. When she did not agree, he got her posters and cut-outs torn down and burnt by his henchmen. She was threatened not to hold meetings and several men were deployed to follow her when she was out from home. On the election day she was chased away from the counting centre. Although Tharangani believed that she would get more than 1000 votes, she had got only 412 votes. Questions: 1 What are the reasons that led to Tharangani’s incident? 2 What rights of hers were violated? 3 What sort of rights should Tharangani, who expected a female representation in the Pradeshiya Sabha, be entitled to? Case Study 4: Shaheema Shaheema, who is the youngest daughter of a middle class family, has two elder brothers. She offered two foreign languages as subjects in the GCE (AL) examination. Though not qualified for University entrance, she got through the AL examination and applied for several jobs. She got opportunities for two jobs. One was a post of Cashier in a leading jewellery shop and the other was a post of Receptionist in a Five Star Hotel. Since she preferred the second job, she went for the interview with her father. After several weeks she was informed to come for a threeweek training on the job. But the two brothers of Shaheema, scolding both the parents and her, asked “Are you not ashamed to send our sister for jobs in hotels?” Questions 1. What are the reasons that led to Shaheema’s incident? 2. In this incident, what rights of Shaheema were violated? 3. As expected by Shaheema, what rights should she be entitled to for her personal development? • Slide Once the group leaders present their answers, give a brief lecture on human rights using the following slides. Equal rights have been ensured in Sri Lanka by Article 12(2) of the Constitution. But these four case studies deal with incidents relating to four characters who had been subjected to human rights violations on account of poverty, ethnicity and gender. They had been differently treated for being belonged to a different ethnic group and being women. Human rights cannot exist side by side with such discriminations. Where human rights are equally enjoyed by everybody there cannot exist discriminations. 101