MoD pays £4m to gays for breach of human rights

MoD pays £4m to gays for breach of human rights

London The Ministry of Defence has paid £4 million to settle a series of compensation claims from homosexual service personnel who were unfairly dismissed from the Forces. The payout has been pending since 1999 when four staff won their case in the European Court of Human Rights.

The MoD disclosed this week that it had paid £3.7 million last year to 57 former staff who had also brought legal action. This was in addition to £300,000 paid to eight homosexual staff over the previous two years. Of the 65 people who have settled a claim against the MoD for its ban on homosexual staff, the average payout was £61,500. The European Court said that the ban was a violation of right to respect for a private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Peter Tatchell, of the gay rights group OutRage!, said: “These payouts are small compensation to people who were often subjected to degrading interrogation and detention, and who lost their job and service accommodation.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5102095.ece