LGBT advocate Peter Tatchell honoured at ceremony in Dublin

Human rights and LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has been named as winner of the James Joyce Award 2016 and the recipient of an Honorary Fellowship from University College Dublin.

Previous winners of the award, which is conferred on people who have “excelled in a field of human endeavour and have made a profound impact on the world around them”, include Noam Chomsky, Desmond Tutu and Hans Blix.

Human rights

At a ceremony,in the Fitzgerald Chamber at UCD, Mr Tatchell received the award for his contribution to the cause of LGBT equality and human rights over the last 50 years.

"I feel humbled and overwhelmed to follow in the footsteps of so many illustrious past recipients," said Mr Tatchell, who dedicated his acceptance to "the heroic LGBT campaigners of Sexual Minorities Uganda and allied Ugandan movements, who are spearheading the fight for LGBT rights in Uganda – in a deeply repressive, intolerant society, at great personal risk to their liberty and lives."