Amnesty International UK has publicly apologised for a report which branded Premier and dozens of Christian organisations as “anti-rights”.
It has accepted the document, A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK, “should never have been published” and “full responsibility for this error rests with Amnesty International UK.”
The report said dozens of Christian charities, gender-critical groups and pro-life organisations were targeting “the rights of women and LGBT+ people”. It also singled out Beira’s Place, a service supporting women who have been victims of sexual violence. The document called for the charitable status of these organisations to be reviewed.
Christian organisations named in the report included the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, Evangelical Alliance UK, Christian Medical Fellowship and CARE.
A letter, organised by ADF International and co-signed by Premier, urged the Charity Commission to reject claims that faith-based groups holding traditional views on life, marriage and biological sex are “anti-rights”. Sent this week, it also asked the regulator to reaffirm that charities should be free to participate in public debate on contested moral issues without being portrayed as threats to human rights.
Amnesty pledged to undertake a review, after criticism of the document when it was shared in July.
In a statement on Friday, Amnesty said: “The briefing was taken down within 48 hours of publication, as soon as management were notified of its existence, was not actively promoted, and will not be republished. We have an ongoing internal investigation into how this briefing came to be published.
“Whilst we do not share the views of all these organisations, we recognise the concerns raised by those labelled as “anti-rights” in the document. To be clear: this labelling does not represent our institutional position, and we apologise for its inclusion. In particular, we apologise to Beira’s Place and other groups, which we categorised as gender critical organisations, which we should not have collectively labelled as anti-rights. We have also taken down an earlier more discursive briefing (entitled Like A Snowball) which also referenced a wide range of organisations.
“AIUK holds itself to the highest standards of research, evidence and editorial oversight in all its publications. We have concluded that this briefing fell significantly short of those standards. We will commission an independent external review to learn from this moment. AIUK remains fully committed to defending the human rights, dignity, and equality of all marginalised groups, including women, girls, and members of the trans community.”
When the document was first published, Premier’s CEO Kevin Bennett said: “Amnesty has real questions to answer about how this report came to be created and published in the first place, and what it reveals about their true position on these matters. Withdrawing the report is a first step but should be followed by a clear statement that it does not see the organisations listed as being ‘anti-rights’. Amnesty was founded with a mission to protect freedom of conscience and belief, it is sadly ironic that in reports like this it actually achieves the complete opposite, by making accusations against organisations and individuals seeking to thoughtfully contribute to the national debate on what are complex and contentious issues.”