Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell will receive an Honorary Doctorate for services to human rights, this Friday.
The award from Sussex University will be made by the Chancellor, Sanjeev Bhaskar, at the graduation ceremony at Brighton Dome.
It is in recognition of Tatchell's 43 years of campaigning for human rights, democracy, global justice and gay freedom.
Tatchell said: "I was hesitant about accepting this honour. After all, my contribution to human rights is very modest. I am a long way from being a brave and effective campaigner. Many others are much more deserving than me.
"I would never agree to a royal honour but this award is different. My decision to accept was partly because the initiative for this honorary doctorate was a grassroots one, from the staff and students. I am honoured by their recognition of my human rights work.
"I accept this award in solidarity with the many heroic, inspirational activists who I support in countries like Uganda, Somaliland, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Baluchistan, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Western Sahara, Iraq, Palestine and West Papua.
"The message I will deliver in my acceptance speech is this: Be sceptical, question authority, be a rebel. All human progress is the result of far-sighted people challenging orthodoxy, tradition and powerful, vested interests. Don't accept the world as it is. Dream about what the world could be - then help make it happen. In whatever field of endeavour you work, be a change-maker for the upliftment of humanity.
"I do my bit for social justice, but so do many others. Together, through our collective efforts, we are helping make a better world - a world more just and free.
"My key political inspirations are Mohandas Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst, Martin Luther King and, to some extent, Malcolm X. I've adapted many of their ideas and methods to the contemporary struggle for human rights - and invented a few of my own.
Tatchell began campaigning in his home town of Melbourne, Australia, in 1967, aged 15.
His first campaign was against the death penalty, followed by campaigns
in support of Aboriginal rights and in opposition to conscription and
the Australian and US war against the people of Vietnam.
