Amnesty Backtracks on UK “Anti-Rights” Report

By | 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 17 (C-Fam) Amnesty International UK hastily pulled down a report calling groups in the United Kingdom that oppose gender ideology and abortion “anti-rights.” Among the groups listed was a support center for women who were victims of sexual violence, which was established with support from author J.K. Rowling.

“We regret that this briefing was uploaded to our website without going through the established internal review processes that are in place to ensure consistency, accuracy and alignment with Amnesty International UK’s positions,” said the organization’s statement, citing “Its use of language does not reflect” its position.

Amnesty’s UK office has published other material on what it calls “anti-rights” actors, including a report from May discussing the growing “gender-critical” movement in the UK that defends the reality and significance of biological sex.

However, the withdrawn report, which remains available in archived form, went a step further by listing the groups it deemed to be “anti-rights,” including Rowling’s women-only support center Beira’s Place, which prompted outrage from feminist and conservative corners alike.

Other groups similarly vilified include crisis pregnancy centers, conservative and Christian advocacy organizations, and advocates for women’s only spaces of any kind.

Chiara Capraro, Amnesty UK’s Gender Justice Programme Director and the report’s likely lead author, also locked down her social media amid the backlash. However, she left a long trail of content, including a podcast interview where she discussed slowing down the effectiveness of conservative and gender-critical activists by “leveraging bureaucracy” and “burying them in paperwork and procedures.”

The UK has been at the heart of the feminist gender-critical movement, and Rowling has backed the movement with her voice and considerable resources.  In 2025, the country’s supreme court ruled that the word “sex” in the nondiscrimination law refers to biological sex. Capraro reacted to the ruling by calling it “disappointing.”

“Make no mistake, legal gender recognition is a human right,” she wrote.

The withdrawn Amnesty report cites the court’s ruling as one factor in the UK’s fall from “1st to 22nd place in [LGBTQ+ organization] ILGA-Europe’s annual Rainbow Map between 2015 and 2026.”

Amnesty International was once a well-respected human rights advocacy group, founded during the Cold War and seeking freedom for political prisoners.  After the fall of the Soviets, it has moved steadily into support for left-wing causes without a basis in internationally agreed human rights, such as abortion, decriminalization of prostitution, and legal recognition of gender identity on the basis of self-identification.

Meanwhile, over a year after the UK Supreme Court’s ruling, the rollout of guidance to implement it has been slow and dogged by political opposition. This week, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, expressed concern about the current situation.

“It is difficult to reconcile opposition to lawful single-sex services with repeated commitments to ending violence against women and girls,” she said.

“Single-sex spaces have long formed part of the legal framework protecting women and girls….Those protections should be respected by all.”

Alsalem had previously endorsed the founding of Beira’s Place.

In its apology, Amnesty did not specify which language in the report did not reflect its positions, nor did it mention Rowling or her charity by name.

After the report was scrubbed, Rowling thanked the transgender activists who continued to distribute it. “You’re demonstrating very effectively that in spite of their hasty backtrack it can be easily accessed forevermore, increasing legal liability. Thank you!”

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