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.
In 2021, a documentary about his life, Hating Peter Tatchell, began streaming on Netflix. The same year, he coordinated the first and very successful Reclaim Pride march, which sought to get Pride back to its roots, with corporate sponsorship being replaced by a grassroots community and human rights focus.
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.
Pliny Soocoormanee – Executive Officer to Peter Tatchell
Pliny coordinated the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) seminar series on global citizenship at the University of Wolverhampton, where he was nominated ‘Friendly Face’. He holds an MA in International Business, specialising in cross-cultural issues, management & leadership, a BSc (Hons) in Economics & Finance and a Dip in Sumerian and Mesopotamian Civilisation.
He has supported numerous LGBT initiatives in Shropshire and the West Midlands as well as LGBT+ organisations in Mauritius. A grounded avid LGBT campaigner he works for change, hoping to make the world a better place and has assisted numerous LGBT+ asylum seekers. He dreams of a world where people will no longer be persecuted based on their sexual orientation.
He was nominated as an LGBT role model at the National Diversity Award. As part of GIN, he won an NDA award. He was a finalist for the University of Wolverhampton Alumni Award and for the GG2 Leadership & Diversity Award.