Analysis Of Jeff Dudgeon And The Prohibition Of Discrimination

In 1975, Jeff Dudgeon sent a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights based on the grounds that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights was breached by the United Kingdom. The court ruled 15-4 in favor of Mr. Dudgeon that the United Kingdom had violated Articles 8 and 14. This was the first major victory for the LGBTQIA+ community at such a high-ranking court. Jeff Dudgeon was questioned by Northern Ireland police about his sexual activity. Several homosexual men (including Dudgeon) had their homes invaded by police because of their sexual orientation. At the time, the rights of homosexual men were limited throughout multiple countries in Europe. Mr. Dudgeon felt Northern Ireland had violated Article 8 of the

In 1979, the court began to hear the case. The court believed this was important because it could also violate Article 14 as well. This referred to the Prohibition of Discrimination. The article applies because it says you cannot discriminated based on "sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status" (European Convention on Human Rights, Article 14). All these factors led to the court ruling in favor of Mr. Dudgeon in a landslide 15-4 vote. The European Court of Human Rights stated that, "Once it has been held that the

Michael T. Mcloughlin described the case best in Crystal or Glass?: A Review of Dudgeon v. United Kingdom on the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Decision (1996), "I have concluded that Dudgeon v. United Kingdom is a milestone in the history of both the European lesbian and gay civil rights movement, through the establishment of a minimum standard beyond which gay and lesbian rights may not erode" (p. 1). Though the ruling is limited and does not include other basic rights (such as marriage) for the LGBTQIA+ community, it sets the standard for the treatment of this minority group around the world. It limits the efforts governments can take to suppress homosexuality. This topic was not addressed in the original writing of the European Court of Human Rights, which makes this even more important. The court validated a new interpretation of the treaty and set a precedent for the treatment of the LGBTQIA+ community. This alone makes it one of the most important cases ever ruled on. It changed the landscape of how the LGBTQIA+ community would be treated throughout the