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Mr. Dudgeon, a gay man, alleged that the existence in Northern Ireland of laws which have the effect of making certain homosexual acts between consenting adult males criminal offences, violated his right to respect for his private life. The European Court of Human Rights held that laws prohibiting certain homosexual acts between consenting adult males constituted an unjustified interference with Dudgeon’s rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to privacy).

Then Wolfenden Report, published in 1957, recommended that ‘homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence', paving the way for the decriminalisation of same-sex activity in the UK.