J.K. Rowling has strongly criticized Amnesty International after the human rights group released a report that labeled her women’s support centre as “anti-rights.” The Harry Potter author, who founded Beira’s Place in Edinburgh to help female survivors of sexual violence, said the organization has turned against the very people it once defended.
Rowling’s criticism came after Amnesty International UK published a briefing document titled “A Growing Threat: The Anti-Rights Movement in the UK.” The report listed more than 100 organizations it described as “anti-rights,” including Rowling’s Beira’s Place, For Women Scotland, and other gender-critical groups.
The controversy has now reached Britain’s charities regulator, which is looking into concerns about the report.
Rowling Calls Amnesty a ‘Host to a Cannibalising Ideology’
Rowling responded on X (formerly Twitter) with strong words about Amnesty’s position. She wrote that the gay rights movement is currently host to a “cannibalising ideology” that blames and shames homosexuals for not sleeping with members of the opposite sex.
She added: “Amnesty International is on the side of the persecutors.”
The author also took aim at what she sees as a double standard. She reposted a comment that read: “‘Can’t believe they’re going after Amnesty’ say the people who went after a rape crisis centre for women.”
Rowling did not stop there. She said Amnesty is no longer the organization that defended people persecuted for their freedom of speech. She called it a “self-appointed, vainglorious policeman of wrongthink” that tweets ideological slogans and demonizes those who disagree.
She also pointed to Amnesty’s involvement in the For Women Scotland case, where the organization sided with those who want to keep men in women’s prisons and rape crisis centres.
Beira’s Place Demands Apology and Threatens Legal Action
Beira’s Place, which Rowling set up and financed in 2022, provides free support and advocacy services for women who have been victims of abuse.
Rowling herself is a survivor of domestic violence and created the centre to ensure women could access care led and delivered by women.
The centre’s lawyers sent a letter to Amnesty International UK with three demands. Amnesty had to permanently withdraw the report, publish a full apology on its website, and launch an independent review into how the document was cleared for publication without proper checks.
The letter described the report as an “egregious falsehood.”
Lesley Johnston, chief executive of Beira’s Place, said it was “inexplicable” that the centre had been included on the list. She called it “deeply offensive” to the staff who work day in and day out to support survivors and to the women who need and use the service.
Amnesty Removes Report After Backlash
Amnesty International UK removed the report from its website after facing heavy criticism.
The organization said the briefing had gone live without going through its standard internal review process.
In a statement, Amnesty said: “Its use of language does not reflect the position of Amnesty International UK which is why it was promptly removed.”
A spokesperson added: “We have temporarily removed this briefing while it undergoes an internal review. Amnesty International UK remains committed to researching and campaigning on human rights issues, incorporating our long standing and explicit commitment to gender justice, including the rights of women, LGBTQI and trans people.”
But Rowling was not satisfied. She shared a screenshot of the report page and wrote: “Translation: oops, didn’t realise people outside our ideological bubble are this p* off about the loss of sex-based rights. We remain implacably opposed to any organisation fighting to retain them, but shove in the words ‘rights of women’ to keep the bigots happy.”
Rowling Points to Earlier Amnesty Report
Rowling then highlighted that Amnesty had already expressed similar views months earlier. She shared that The Times had reported Amnesty was already smearing feminists as “anti-rights” back in May in a report called “Like a snowball: the growth and impact of the gender critical movement in the UK.”
That earlier report stated that the growth of the gender-critical movement was “worrying” and had been normalized by the media. It called on journalists to “qualify GC and explain that it is an ideological stance that seeks to restrict the rights of trans people.”
Rowling wrote: “It appears that, far from being an accidental slip up or an editorial error, the latest defamatory report accurately represents Amnesty UK’s deep-seated hostility to all organisations that believe sex is real and important in contexts such as same sex attraction and healing after sexual violence and trauma.”
She added: “Those who’ve been defamed are owed an explanation of why Amnesty claimed to have withdrawn the report because of its ‘language’ when, per The Times article, it had already expressed exactly the same beliefs, in the same language, months previously.”
High-Profile Figures Speak Out
The controversy has drawn attention from other well-known figures. Tennis legend Martina Navratilova and Monty Python star John Cleese both criticized Amnesty’s decision.
Cleese wrote on X: “I was once a major fund-raiser for Amnesty. But in those days it was about preventing torture. Not about sexual identity. I disown them.”
Rowling also noted that many of the organizations Amnesty attacked are grassroots campaigners with a tiny fraction of the resources of a large international NGO.
She warned: “The defamatory report has already had serious consequences for a service supporting women at the most vulnerable time of their lives, as detailed by Beira’s Place lawyers in the legal letter sent two days ago. The withdrawing of the report cannot undo the harm it has already done and is continuing to do.”
Charity Commission Gets Involved
Britain’s Charity Commission said on Thursday that concerns had been raised with the watchdog over the briefing document published by Amnesty International UK.
A spokesperson said: “We are assessing the matters raised to determine what, if any, role there might be for us as charity law regulator.”
The commission confirmed it had not launched a formal investigation at that stage.
Rowling’s Anger Grows
Rowling expressed her anger publicly. She wrote: “I’m often tickled by press articles asserting that I’m furious about things that actually gave me a proper belly laugh. This time, though … Amnesty’s attack on Beira’s Place has left me burning with the kind of fury that mounts with every passing hour.”
She also invited other organizations named in what she called Amnesty’s “blacklist” to seek help from the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund.
The report had listed 117 organizations, including LGB Alliance, For Women Scotland, and Sex Matters.
Rowling’s post read: “It appears that (as many of us have suspected for years) Amnesty believes certain kinds of humans don’t deserve rights: women, girls and those who are proudly same-sex attracted. I hope donors from those groups are taking note.”
Background on Beira’s Place
Rowling named the centre after a Scottish winter goddess she described as standing for female wisdom, strength and regeneration.
The centre operates in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, which ruled that the legal definition of sex was biological sex only.
Beira’s Place offers support in a safe environment for women who have experienced sexual violence. The centre has been praised by many for filling a gap in services for women who prefer single-sex support.
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Rowling and her supporters have made it clear they are prepared to take the matter to court if Amnesty does not meet their demands.
The author, who once worked at Amnesty International and wrote the first Harry Potter book while employed there, has now become one of the organization’s most vocal critics.
She said some people have not forgotten that Amnesty once defended prisoners of conscience like Alexei Navalny, the murdered Russian opposition leader.
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