Foy will attend a gala dinner at London’s Natural History Museum tomorrow evening, where the winner will be announced. She will be accompanied by her leal counsel Michael Farrell, Senior Solicitor with legal rights group FLAC, as well as Orlaith O’Sullivan, representing transgender rights campaigners TENI.

Human rights organisation FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres) sees the award as a major honour for Lydia Foy, after 20 years of campaigning for legal recognition. The organisation has represented Foy in a series of legal challenges over the last 16 years.

Foy won a High Court case in October 2007, when the court ruled that her rights under the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated by the failure to recognise her in her female gender.

Foy commented, “I see this as a great honour for all trans people in Ireland.”

The European Diversity Awards are viewed as Europe’s major platform for recognising campaigning work for diversity and inclusion in the workplace and society as a whole.

Senator David Norris has also been nominated in the same category in appreciation of his long struggle for gay and lesbian rights in Ireland and elsewhere.