The Charity Commission is assessing concerns at Amnesty International UK’s charitable arm, which raised a serious incident report after removing a controversial report from its website.
Last week, Amnesty International UK published a report entitled A Growing Threat: the Anti-Rights Movement in the UK, which lists more than 100 organisations with gender critical views.
This sparked “extreme concern” from some MPs, who debated the report in a cross-party motion tabled on Tuesday in parliament.
Amnesty International UK has now removed and apologised for publishing the briefing.
“We regret that this briefing was uploaded to our website without going through the established internal review processes,” it said in a statement this week.
“Its use of language does not reflect the position of Amnesty International UK which is why it was promptly removed.”
The organisation’s charitable arm submitted a serious incident report to the regulator, which also received a letter from 40 concerned organisations including charity Sex Matters and JK Rowling’s sexual assault service Beira’s Place.
A commission spokesperson said: “We can confirm that concerns have been raised with us about a briefing published by Amnesty International UK Charitable Trust.
“In line with our guidance, the charity has also submitted a serious incident report. We are assessing the matters raised to determine what, if any, role there might be for us as charity law regulator.”
Threat of legal action
Lawyers acting for Beira’s Place and Rowling wrote to Amnesty International UK asking for a public letter of apology on the charity’s website and that it commission an external investigation, Sex Matters said.
Sex Matters added that Beira’s Place would be making a separate complaint to the regulator and was “supportive” of organisations wishing to take legal action.
Rowling invited other organisations named in the report to apply to her fund to help with legal costs.
Amnesty International UK’s spokesperson said they were aware of the letter sent to the commission, were engaging with the process and would not republish the briefing.
They added: “We remain committed to defending human rights, including both the rights of women and the rights of trans people.
“Human rights protections are strongest when they apply equally to everyone, and no community should be singled out for unfair treatment or denied their dignity and rights.”
