Amnesty International Statement on FiLiA

[OhHolyJesus]

"Amnesty International UK did not organise any protests at the FiLiA conference in Portsmouth which took place on 16 and 17 October 2021.
We have a long history of campaigning against violence against women and this continues to be a vital part of our work.

We are equally committed to campaigning for the rights of transgender people to live freely, authentically, and openly, and to have their gender legally recognised without having to go through a dehumanising, long and costly procedure.

Amnesty International has clear guidelines on how we campaign. We will only support protests by any individuals, groups or communities which are in line with Amnesty’s core values, including not using or advocating violence, hatred or discrimination while protesting; and that the protests themselves should be consistent with international human rights law and standards.

We were approached by the organisers of a Fly the Flag event in Portsmouth at the weekend, who requested that we supply materials which reflect Amnesty International UK’s campaigning positions on the LGBTQ human rights.

Two sets of placards were sent. One set of signs stated the slogan “I AM WHO I SAY I AM: Amnesty International”. The second set of signs stated the slogan “LOVE IS A HUMAN RIGHT: Amnesty International”. The organiser of the Fly the Flag event stated that their protest would be respectful and celebratory and that she would seek dialogue with delegates to the conference. We were happy to support the Fly the Flag event in this way.
However, the event was not an official Amnesty International UK event and a sign that was displayed describing this as an official Amnesty International UK protest event was incorrect.

We have investigated events from the weekend. There were several separate groups holding events and protests outside the Guildhall in Portsmouth. Our understanding remains the case that the Fly the Flag Event was respectful and appropriate and was not connected with the threatening and aggressive language and images that were present in other parts of Guildhall Square that weekend. Photographs of the threatening and aggressive language and images displayed by other protestors present at the Guildhall have been shared with us and we are shocked by it.

We recognise that the FiLiA conference was attended by a number of women who have been the victims of violence and harassment. Amnesty International UK believes there should have been absolutely no place for the use of any threatening or aggressive language or imagery towards any of the attendees of that conference, or indeed towards any women."

www.amnesty.org.uk/statement-section-following-portsmouth-conference-october-2021

@CompleteGinasaur

"Love is a human right". Great slogan, isn't it? You can read it as either idealistically universal or, more cynically, carefully unspecific.

Unspecific until you remember which sex is always tasked with providing the "love" and which always trousers all of the "rights"....

I wonder what the implications of this are for trans widows. When we stopped loving our exes we were breaching their human rights?

That would seem to be the... I don't want to use logical, because I think we left actual logic behind a hell of a long time ago.. shall we say inevitable? end of this line of thought..

Amazing how this sort of altruism, almost sainthood is only demanded of women and never of men.

I thought that Amnesty groups didn't campaign on issues in their own countries. When did this change?

I AM WHO I SAY I AM: Amnesty International
Are they saying they're con men?

I'll go with, when someone shows you who they are, believe them.

@BlackForestCake

I thought that Amnesty groups didn't campaign on issues in their own countries. When did this change?

Oh, that's interesting. It makes sense but I didn't realize it.

But they don't seem to spend much time on prisoners of conscience or political prisoners anymore, and they clearly don't believe that citizens should be free to make all kinds of political arguments. So maybe it seems less relevant.

If love is a human right, then does the government have a legal responsibility to provide me with a mail order spouse? Or to run brothels?

Well, that's not far off from Amnesty's thinking if you're a disabled man - one of the arguments they gave a few years ago for approving of women being prostituted was that if women aren't prostituted, then it denies disabled men the right to a sex life.

@BlackForestCake

I thought that Amnesty groups didn't campaign on issues in their own countries. When did this change?

It was a rule when I was still active in Amnesty about 25 years ago. My group campaigned against death penalty in the US and we had no contact with American Amnesty groups bc of that.

Yeah - it’s crazy to think their whole purpose once was to protest for the right to free speech in regimes where political prisoners or prisoners of conscience were held without trial by oppressive authoritarian regimes. As a student I used to be in an Amnesty letter writing group back in the day.

To see then turn into an organisation bent on enforcing anti-women’s rights ideologies, and protesting the exercise of lawful free speech, is bizarre to say the least. So many organisations have lost their collective heads over this issue.

Just one more of those things that makes me feel like I slid into an alternative dystopian universe some time around 2005, and one day I’ll wake up and find that it was all a dream…

How offensive to the disabled community on top of everything else! What an utter shit show from Amnesty.

@foxgoosefinch

Yeah - it’s crazy to think their whole purpose once was to protest for the right to free speech in regimes where political prisoners or prisoners of conscience were held without trial by oppressive authoritarian regimes. As a student I used to be in an Amnesty letter writing group back in the day.

To see then turn into an organisation bent on enforcing anti-women’s rights ideologies, and protesting the exercise of lawful free speech, is bizarre to say the least. So many organisations have lost their collective heads over this issue.

Just one more of those things that makes me feel like I slid into an alternative dystopian universe some time around 2005, and one day I’ll wake up and find that it was all a dream…

They could no longer maintain that old focus as soon as they started campaigning for other kinds of rights. You can't campaign for other nations to adopt western viewpoints on various issues while also claiming to have a deep respect for political autonomy and freedom of conscience. It might seem to work when the political prisoners want those same things, but they won't always.

@TurquoiseBaubles

We weren't involved, but if we were we did nothing wrong, and if we did it was someone else, and if it was we didn't know anything about it.

Also, the dog ate my homework, and I was away that day.

They'll take anything but responsibility. As usual.

I have been a committed supporter and member of Amnesty for many, many years.

I am a great believer in basic human rights worldwide. I am devastated that Amnesty have completely lost their compass and thrown so much energy into a lobby for preferences.

Rather than protecting those who are tortured, imprisoned, beaten and killed for just voicing their beliefs.

So much wrong with this

• you don’t ‘send placards’ - a name such as Amnesty is either completely part of a demonstration or not. There is no fudging middle where you can hide behind. They knowingly gave their name and support to people who called for violence, sexual violence against women whilst ironically FiLiA were supporting women from sexual violence.
• Amnesty should have been supporting FiLiA to speak out without fear or violent threats
• Amnesty has no place in a philosophical debate on trans preference. No trans person is being tortured or imprisoned by being denied using a woman’s changing room.

Well, well, well. Interesting almost reverse ferret.

But I expect it won’t go as far as that. Because International. And mindful of that…being The Issue is our times, they might think, listening to youth.

So sad to see them loose their way. The thing is, TRUST, once gone, is gone. I cannot ever give them a minute or a penny again.

As a lifelong supporter, this makes me very sad. But they have chosen their bedfellows, and made their bed.

Some sleepy typos above, but the gist is clear I hope!

@foxgoosefinch and @LobsterNapkin

What really angers and saddens me is, who is fighting for those being tortured, imprisoned, threatened, losing their jobs etc just for speaking up? Now that Amnesty have decided to spend all their charitable funds on people wanted to use a woman’s changing room?

Who now is writing letters, like I used to, for gay prisoners, rights activists or people being tortured for opposing a regime? What is happening to those people now that people just don’t seem to care? Those student activists - are they all just writing placards with sexually violent threats to feminists instead?

Woe is me, is this really the world and what it cares about now?

Amnesty has no place in a philosophical debate on trans preference. No trans person is being tortured or imprisoned by being denied using a woman’s changing room.

Yes, exactly this and absolutely to all of your post.

No responsible person or organisation should be lending credence to this ghastly hyperbole of TRAs, which equates not getting to go in a changing room with “fascism” or “denying someone’s right to exist” or “wanting to erase trans people”; nor should anyone be going along with this ridiculous assertion that speech is “literal violence”.

It’s astonishingly offensive to equate torture and political oppression under genuine fascism with all of this stuff. I’m amazed that Amnesty can’t see this, to be honest.

I can't get my head around "Love is a human right" Maybe if it said "love is a human responsibility"

But a right? who has the responsibility for giving this love ...we all know the answer to that. so fucking sick of the world treating women as some sort of support human for the real humans. And so fucking sick of women la-la-laing along to this tune.

Surely the right to tell the truth is a human right too?

@MassiveHoard

'I am what i say I am' is just not true. I am what I am, not what I say I am

This is an excellent point - have people just accepted 'I am what i say I am' because they think it's "kind" to do so?

@foxgoosefinch 100% agree with you. I feel like I’ve just lifted the lid on a casket of monsters, Amnesty being one of them.

I cancelled my membership, specifically because of the sexually violent threats. I did not mention trans issues at all. Yet I received an exact same email with the ‘lecture’ on trans rights, even though I had not even mentioned trans issues as a reason. I think their reply is horrific if I’m honest. There is zero justification of sexual threats to women who were bravely talking about their sexual abuse - and Amnesty should be absolutely ashamed and reviewing their whole stance on this.

However they are obviously not. So I quickly googled what Amnesty’s stance was, and how much energy was going into their backing of trans preferences to be able to go into all women’s spaces. It’s a real eye opener. They are all over it, they have commissioned weird research into sex at birth, they are full of anti safeguarding rhetoric, they have so lost their way that I do not think they will ever find it again. Such a waste. I”m sorry but someone being tortured just for being gay or opposing a regime is what we should care about, and they obviously don’t anymore.

[quote NCBlossom]**@foxgoosefinch* and @LobsterNapkin*

What really angers and saddens me is, who is fighting for those being tortured, imprisoned, threatened, losing their jobs etc just for speaking up? Now that Amnesty have decided to spend all their charitable funds on people wanted to use a woman’s changing room?

Who now is writing letters, like I used to, for gay prisoners, rights activists or people being tortured for opposing a regime? What is happening to those people now that people just don’t seem to care? Those student activists - are they all just writing placards with sexually violent threats to feminists instead?

Woe is me, is this really the world and what it cares about now?[/quote]
I don’t know - I despair as well: you hear such awful news coming out of Afghanistan, for example, and then our university student societies and feminist societies are sending round Facebook notices about “terf ideology” and “sex work positive” events and pronouns, and nothing at all about any actual issues like this, and I just think why are none of you bothered about actual real, horrible harms being done to people instead of this rubbish about how mentioning that women have cervixes is “causing harm to trans people”?

@NCBlossom I completely agree

Hmmmm.

www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/people/portsmouth-council-flies-trans-and-other-inclusive-flags-outside-offices-3421367

Googled fly the flag Portsmouth ^

'Flagpoles in Guildhall Square are currently flying the colours of trans, LGBTQ+ and non-binary people, as well as suffragettes.'

Note- not items provided by amnesty.

'It comes ahead of a two-day ‘peaceful’ protest in support of trans rights that has been organised over the weekend (October 16-17).'

Peaceful in scare quotes is interesting! Sounds that the fly the flag thing BY THE COUNCIL was explicitly linked to protest FILIA...

'Attendees of the Standing Against Transphobia will meet as a conference hosted by women’s liberation group Filia – which is accused of being ‘transphobic’ – will be held inside the Guildhall.

One of the protest’s organisers, Councillor Claire Udy, said: ‘This is a clear message from the council that trans and non binary lives are valid.'

**COUNCIL felt demo at FILIA was a good thing... Wonderful...

'It also sends a message that it is time to reclaim the women’s suffrage flag, which has been co-opted by a transphobic movement.’

FUCK OFF

'Steph – who runs the Steph’s Place blog, said: ‘All the team at Steph’s Place are very grateful to the city council before the “fly the flag” event this weekend.

‘This has been a multi-group effort, working with stakeholders across the city and even in other countries. The massive support of Amnesty International, in particular, has been very welcome and humbling.'

Looks like was always explicit about FILIA demo. Council, amnesty etc.

'Just last month a peaceful trans rights protest was held outside a University of Portsmouth building as a talk on single-sex spaces by Woman’s Place UK took place inside.'

Was it peaceful? No idea. Have doubts based on repeated patterns of protester behaviour...

Single sex rights eh? Women? You don't say!!!

The signs amnesty gave-

Love is love, I am who I say I am. Whatever the wordings were. Are they the only amnesty placards sent? If so. I'm not sure that they were accurately informed of what was being protested. The love one is totally irrelevant to the situation.

If so, surely they would have said so though?

@foxgoosefinch so true, and so deeply saddening, a more uncaring world? I despair as well: you hear such awful news coming out of Afghanistan, for example, and then our university student societies and feminist societies are sending round Facebook notices about “terf ideology” and “sex work positive” events and pronouns, and nothing at all about any actual issues like this