The PTF Team

Peter Tatchell - Director

Peter Tatchell was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1952 and has been campaigning since 1967 on issues of human rights, democracy, civil liberties, LGBT equality and global justice. His human rights inspirations include Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst and Martin Luther King.

In 2009, he co-proposed a UN Global Human Rights Index, to measure and rank the human rights record of every country - with the aim of creating a human rights league table to highlight the best and worst countries and thereby incentivise governments to clean up their record and improve their human rights ranking.

He coordinated the Equal Love campaign from 2010, in a bid to challenge the UK's twin legal bans on same-sex civil marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships. The following year, he organised four gay couples and four heterosexual couples to file a case in the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that sexual orientation discrimination in civil marriage and civil partnership law is unlawful under Articles 8, 12 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

He has proposed an internationally-binding UN Human Rights Convention enforceable through both national courts and the International Criminal Court; a permanent rapid-reaction UN peace-keeping force with the authority to intervene to stop genocide and war crimes; and a global agreement to cut military spending by 10 percent to fund the eradication of hunger, disease, illiteracy, unemployment and homelessness in the developing world.

James Howarth - Assistant to the Director

James joined the PTF as Assistant to the Director in May 2012 after gaining experience at the Consortium for Street Children and the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. He supports the PTF team with a range of advocacy, communications, research and administrative tasks. James has a BA in Human Geography from Sheffield Hallam University and an MA in Development Studies from the University of Manchester.

Rakshita Patel - Casework & Research Officer (Voluntary)

Rakshita (Raks) has over 20 years’ experience of working as a Manager, and then as a Senior Manager, in the public sector. She has worked for the Audit Commission, the NHS, PricewaterhouseCoopers (Public Services Division), and the Civil Service (predominantly in the Home Office but also in the Department for Communities and Local Government).
Raks has a BSc (Hons) in Economics and Government from Brunel University and an MSc in Race and Ethnic Relations from Birkbeck College, University of London.
Raks went into management in the public services because she wanted to make a difference and help people by improving public services for the better and making them the best that they can be for the customer/service user.
Raks is volunteering with the Peter Tatchell Foundation to learn, develop, and hone her campaigning skills.

James Counsell - Campaign Officer (Voluntary)

James is reading philosophy at the University of Cambridge. He is a former President of the Cambridge Union. His previous experience in the charity sector includes working as a fundraiser for the RSPB. He is working with the PTF over the summer 2012 on a range of campaigns and assists with media relations and research.

Joseph Deeney – Administration Officer (Voluntary)

Joseph has worked extensively with prisoners and disenfranchised youths. He studied literature and creative writing at the University of East Anglia and has continued writing since his time there.