A4 sheet, black and red on white with colour photo; printout from The Guardian online. Obituary by Nigel Warner and Graham McKerrow for Peter Ashman, human rights lawyer who played an important role in the case of Jeff Dudgeon, a gay activist in Northern Ireland, which challenged the law against sex between men in Northern Ireland in the late 1970's (the 1967 change to the law which made sex between two consenting men over 21 years old, in private, legal did not apply to Northern Ireland). The case was won at the European Court of Human Rights in in 1981 and led to a change in the law in Northern Ireland in 1982 and in 23 other signatory countries to the European Convention on Human Rights over the next 20 years. He came up with the idea for the BBC TV series "Rough Justice" on cases of miscarriage of justice, and his work in this area contributed towards the establishment of the Criminal Law Revision Committee. He played an important role in the establishment of both the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), and Stonewall, with his home in Islington providing the office for the organisation in its early days.
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