To think Amnesty International now does more harm to women than good?

[ShoppingWomble]

I've supported them for nearly 20 years although I've been noticing more & more people on here saying they've left.

Today I saw they were officially protesting at the Filia Conference in Portsmouth over the weekend:

hiyamaya.net/2021/10/18/amnesty-international-is-sexually-harassing-women-political-protest/

I've been putting off cancelling my direct debit to them as I think they do good work eg. campaigning for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran.

But I can't square that with Amnesty actively protesting against women meeting to discuss women's rights, poverty, violence against women around the world etc etc.

Should I cancel the direct debit? (£30 a month so not megabucks but it adds up). Anyone know of a better way to support women's rights around the world?

They were very very vocal about stating that women who were vocal about protecting their rights did not deserve to be politically represented. Including the granddaughter of one of the founders.

They have the name Amnasty for a reason.

It would not surprise me that they provided the protest signs and probably did not send someone to ensure they were being used responsibly.

Thanks for all this - just cancelled my AI sub and switched it to Womankind and Lendwithcare.

They made the mistake of emailing me with their christmas catalogue today, I have informed tham I will not be buying.

I cancelled my subscription years ago over their stance on prostitution, but I would cancel it again today if I could.

What I'm getting at is, I could create a banner with any charity logo and claim they support me, but that doesn't mean they have.

Yes, but given the level of publicity on this, and the amount of people trying to get their attention on Twitter, you'd think that they would have managed to issue a statement if this was false.

So I'm assuming it was backed at some level until I hear otherwise.

It's certainly possible the "approval" was made by someone quite low-level without the proper process. It does seem to be quite common that Woke interns do weird stuff. But it's also common that the complete organisation has lost its way.

Hey, if you're looking for alternative recipients for your money, now that you're cancelling your direct debit, please look at my thread of charities.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4184062-Feminist-goals-and-organisations-which-are-working-towards-them

@ShoppingWomble

Forgot to say I got their Autumn catalogue through the post today and the cover is a man in a hoodie & big boots next to a woman with a bag that says "Fighting bad guys since 1961". It feels like it's got a lot more aggressive since the letter-writing campaign days.

I recall as a young teenage girl supporting Amnesty and some of the leaflets I received from them being genuinely bloody terrifying. Graphic, extreme details of rape, for example.

As a slightly older teenager, they sent me a fake court summons as a publicity stunt. It gave me such a shock.

They have a long history of being self righteous, brutish and misogynist, I'm afraid. I see them as part of the problem as much as any kind of solution. It's a damn shame because we really need a strong human rights organisation.

Just not Amnesty.

The women who attended the vigil that night for victims of femicide had to do so standing on those obscene drawings and threats to women.

Amnesty have totally lost any remnant of the plot. 'Love' ffs..... none to spare for women needing single sex provisions.

I've long given up on them because of their empowerfullizing approach to sex work.

You'd think a human rights organisation would be able to spot sex and income based exploitation and links to trafficking but nope.

Pure misogynistic arseholes.

@minou123

Thank you secular111

But none of those state that AI supported this protest.

What I'm getting at is, I could create a banner with any charity logo and claim they support me, but that doesn't mean they have.

But why would they retweet it if they didn’t support it?

@Tal45

A different approach but I support women abroad with microloans with Lend with care. I get some/most of the money back and then can reinvest it to help another lady.

I do this too. It was originally given to me as a present but I have added more over the years and it keeps getting repaid. You choose who you help so there are women and men. lendwithcare.org/

@minou123

Sorry, can I clarify?

Did Amnesty International support the protest?

I saw the tweet from the organiser claiming AI supported them and I saw the banners had the AI candle with barbed wire.

But is there anything direct from AI staring they supported the protestors?

I haven't seen anything directly from Amnesty saying they supported the protesting of a conference for women's rights.

But they haven't yet denied it, either.

I cancelled years ago when a friend worked there in a senior role. I had some nights out with her colleagues and they were doing loads of coke... Not a fan of the human rights abuses inherent in the international drug trade, so that was the end of my monthly DDs right there.

(I'm now wondering whether the cocaine use is any way related to the recent work campaigning against feminism? In my experience blokes on gak quite often bore on, dominating the conversation... maybe they just took that into the boardroom and well, here we are).

@minou123

Thank you secular111

But none of those state that AI supported this protest.

What I'm getting at is, I could create a banner with any charity logo and claim they support me, but that doesn't mean they have.

According to the protest organiser, Amnesty designed leaflets for the protest.

However it is as yet unclear whether Amnesty were aware the protest was going to be picketing/protesting a woman's rights conference.

twitter.com/PlaceSteph/status/1449652221902209026

Dreadful charity not at all interested in any political prisoners outside of their approved (tiny) mindset

Thanks so much, everyone! Really helpful responses. I've talked it over with DH (joint account) and we are cancelling the direct debit and going to invest it in Lend with care instead.

Sad to let go of Amnesty though - I admired their aims but I guess the aim was not the reality.

I would like to know of a good organisation that supports human rights and includes women in their definition of 'human'.

I was at FiLiA, listening to the TRAs chanting outside while the Lesbians in the LGBT camp at Kakuma were telling us stuff via Zoom that made us weep with horror at what they were subjected to.

I subsequently asked the protesters outside what they thought about what the Lesbians in the LGBT block at Kakuma were going through, I got told to "fuck off you TERF"

waving Amnesty branded placards. Not saying Amnesty provided them, but the messages were obviously in full support of the T.

I'd suggest

Leave Amnesty ; divert the surplus funds to Kakuma, FiLiA, WPUK, Sex Matters, Glinner, Suzanne Moore, Abigail Shrier, Transgender Trend and also digging to help all the crowdfunders to support women's sex based rights.

@minou123

Thank you secular111

But none of those state that AI supported this protest.

What I'm getting at is, I could create a banner with any charity logo and claim they support me, but that doesn't mean they have.

So a quote from the organiser writing;

We are protesting with the official support of Amnesty International, with a screenshot of where they wrote it.

Wow! You set a high bar for confirmation.

I mean, the same above in blood. Would that suffice?

How about this? Will it do?

Glad you've cut off one source of funding to them. Personally I don't recommend any of the big charities, they are overwhelmingly dishonest. If you must give money, give it to a small local charity where the people running it aren't yet disillusioned and trying to line their own pockets.

I'll buy from the big charities' shops but no way would I donate directly to Amnesty, Oxscam and so on.

I stopped supporting them a long time ago, when they failed to take a stand against the sexual exploitation of women in prostitution. Donate to your local rape crisis centre, they're all on their knees.

"Love is a human right" needs to be clarified. Because it has some unsettling implications if you take it literally.

@Zeev

"Love is a human right" needs to be clarified. Because it has some unsettling implications if you take it literally.

It's very incel isn't it!

Quite. If it's a 'right' for someone, then someone else has a compulsion to provide it.

No. Being loved is not a right. Sex is not a right.

And the awful irony of shouting about love at that protest, in that place, with that evidence being given by women inside?

Values shot beyond repair.