Peter Tatchell

Human Rights Campaigner

Case Study

How would you like to be described?

Human rights campaigner.

How would you describe what you do?

I campaign for human rights in the UK and worldwide, and provide advice and support to other campaign groups and to the victims of persecution.

What is your greatest achievement?

Helping to force changes in policing policy to end the harassment of the LGBT+ community; thereby saving thousands of gay and bisexual men from arrest, conviction, fines, jail and the frequent loss of their job. My two attempted citizen's arrests of the Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe, also gave me great satisfaction because, although I did not succeed, it helped draw worldwide attention to his tyranny and gave a big morale boost to the long suffering people of Zimbabwe.

What was the cause or ’trigger for this journey of making the world a better place through being useful and kind? And how old were you? When did you realise you could make a difference?

In 1963, at the age of 11, I heard about the bombing of a black church by white racists, where four young girls, about my own age, were murdered. That prompted my interest in, and support for, the black civil rights movement. It awakened my social conscience and set me on the path of human rights activism. I reasoned: if they can, I can.

Was it something your parents are/would have been proud of and encouraged?

No. My parents were right-wing working class evangelicals, bordering on fundamentalists. Our family life revolved around the church. They opposed liberal ideas and political protest.

Who or what were your early influences?

As well as the black civil rights movement, I read history and was inspired by the suffragettes and Mahatma Gandhi.

What were you doing at 16?

I was still at school in my hometown of Melbourne, Australia, and campaigning for indigenous Aboriginal civil and land rights; as well as against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war - and against the draft for that war.

What advice would you give your 16 year old self?

You are going to face a lot of more resistance and hostility than you can ever imagine if you take on human rights abusers, so be mentally and emotionally well prepared.

What advice would you give to other young people?

Don't accept the world as it is. Dream of what the world could be - and then help make it happen.

What has been the most difficult challenge on the way and how did you overcome it?

The sustained hate campaigns against me because of my human rights work have been my greatest challenge. I've been violently assaulted over 300 times, including 50 attacks on my flat with bricks and bottles, three arson attempts and a bullet through my front door. I feared that I was going to be killed. For 20 years I suffered from severe PTSD. It was very tough but I've survived and I carry on the fight for human rights.

What do you think are the changes we need to see in the world and how can being U&K help solve those things?

My motivation is love. I love other people and love freedom, justice and equality. If more people were guided by these values, the world would be a much better place. Specifically, we have to move away from the competitive-driven, dog-eat-dog, rat race of modern capitalism, which is ecologically destroying our planet, denying us quality of life and leaving billions of people in poverty. We need a collaborative, democratic economy that puts people before profits and is based on the principles of fairness and social justice.

How are you useful and kind to yourself - what helps and hinders?

I work ridiculously long hours - 16 to18 hours a day is not uncommon. This makes me very tired and sometimes ill from overwork. I don't have much of a social life. My relationships have often been under strain from my overwork. So I am not very kind to myself. I find it really had to ignore suffering and appeals for help. I'd love to work less, but I don't have the funding to employ the necessary staff. Nevertheless, I get the huge reward of knowing that my activism, together with that of others, has helped right many wrongs and improve people's lives. That is a great psychological uplift. It keeps me motivated and inspired to carry on.

How are you both useful and kind to others (the easy ones and those who are more difficult to be U&K to)?

I receive a lot of personal pleas for help from victims of discriminastion and hate crime, and from people fleeing persecution and seeking asylum. Their cases are often complicated and lengthy, which can be very stressful for both them and me, but I try to help them all - and usually get a positive result.

What is your biggest challenge in the future?

To keep doing human rights work and making a difference for another 30 years. I am now 68 and suffering from a bit of brain and eye damage from all the times that I have been beaten up. It makes campaigning harder but I am undeterred.

What do you wish you had done differently?

I wish I had been more radical and taken on more tyrants. I regret not being able to build and sustain a movement; though heaven knows I tried many times. I guess I was a failure on that front.