In which Amnesty jumps the shark

[WrongKindOfFeminist]

A report on 'anti gender actors' from Amnesty appears to be a puzzling work of jumbled nonsense and overwrought fiction.

Either they completely fail to grasp what 'gender critical' means, or they are deliberately trying desperately to bundle it in with Xtian rightwing US organisations. Maybe both.

Trans activists have been accusing UK feminists of being rightwing Xtian US fundamentalist funded for years. Sometimes it's funny, more often it's just fucking tedious.

Anyway.

'An organised anti-rights movement targeting the rights of women and LGBT+ people is growing in the UK. Over 60% of the organisations mapped have emerged since 2017, the vast majority gender critical organisations'

What the everloving fuck do they think they mean, here?

Feminists 'target' the rights of women? In terms of - feminists have fought long and hard for the rights of women? Yes, well done, Amnesty.

Then they whang on a lot about abortion and well funded US rightwing organisations, including religious groups, etc.

And then ...

'In fact, gender critical organisations only account for 2.5% of total expenditure but have been remarkably successful in realising their agenda through strategic litigation and campaigning.'

Will you ever actually use your brains, Amnesty?

The list at the end should give them a wee clue. Dozens of feminist organisations, almost all listed as 'informal', yet lumped in bizarrely with massive US anti abortion groups.

Idiots.

www.amnesty.org.uk/knowledge-hub/all-resources/report-a-growing-threat-the-anti-rights-movement-in-the-uk-july-2026/

Amnesty faces loss of donors after ‘anti-rights’ report, ex-staff say

https://www.thetimes.com/article/7a1fb03b-32e8-4bdc-b8d2-ef9dcdd86237?shareToken=de6e9c9c71c1ad830d68aee4e3012931

'Another former employee, who left in 2020, said: “I am really concerned about where Amnesty goes from here. I don’t know how this will ever be forgotten.
“The sad part of it all is that this report hasn’t just let down Amnesty itself, it has let down women’s organisations that are working to improve rights. It has also let down the transgender community it says it wants to protect. I don’t see how this report has helped their rights. If anything, it’s inflamed tensions.”'

No shit.

"We remain committed to defending human rights, including both the rights of women and the rights of trans people.”

They just can't say the word women on its own, they've always got to shoehorn 'trans' in.

Over on Reddit when they made this statement, as you can imagine, they were offended that women and trans people were mentioned separately.

https://www.wateraid.org/washmatters/blog/toilets-everyone-moving-gender-neutral-bathrooms-our-london-office

WaterAid tried gender neutral and seemed realistic about how it would/woundnt translate to different situations.

I think they are good and definitely understand the problems with sanitation and girls.
https://www.wateraid.org/washmatters/our-work/sanitation

This is the kind of on-the-ground-work I always imagined amnesty doing. I didn’t realise how amnesty operated here.

https://www.wateraid.org/washmatters/projects/water-sanitation-hygiene-urban-populations-bangladesh

No one can argue with these kind of projects. Needs focused.

This was AI's 'Safe Schools Every Girl's Right' campaign in 2007.

'Ensure that schools have sex-segregated toilets and washrooms, secure dormitories, and supervised playgrounds and sports fields.'

'Violence against girls in school reinforces gender stereotypes'

How have they now changed to supporting mixed sex facilities which put women and girls at risk and perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes. It's like they've switched sides completely and are now campaigning for men.

That’s really significant that they said washrooms too. I note they didn’t say changing rooms because it would probably seem too ludicrous but that seems to be the case in some schools @SingleSexSpacesInSchools

It's a pity that wateraid didn't follow up with the results of the gender neutral facilities (or at least not that I could find using their search on their website).

Amnesty are/were about human rights, specifically generally legal, freedom-of-speech, etc.

So things that slide into what I'd call 'health' or social care are a bit outwith their remit.

Which is why Amnesty fighting against women having human rights - intervening in the Supreme Court to counter the idea, ffs! - is so astonishing, and revealing.

Yes I agree. It’s just the image I had of them working ‘at the coalface’ as it were.

I'll just put this here, the Sydney Morning Herald

https://archive.ph/EaLqi

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/amnesty-picked-a-fight-with-jk-rowling-over-trans-rights-it-backfired-20260715-p60foj.html

I suppose it's understandable that because it's written by the European correspondent there's no mention of how gender ideology is erasing sex based rights in Australia, although not even a sentence!?

It's a pity it's behind a paywall. I'd dearly love to read the comments.

It’s a really good article, but they’ve mixed up Rape Crisis Scotland with Edinburgh RCC.

He alludes to it here, but agree he could have linked an article about Sall Grover or similar.

This argument crosses borders, and it is intensely debated in Australia, but the backstory is wholly British. And it suggests that the uncompromising stance by trans campaigners will backfire on them and their cause, even when advanced by those with powerful brands.

I think their understanding of human rights has shifted away from the legal definition that emphasises universality, and has actually become rather conservative.

Under this understanding one acquires rights by being marginalised.

When looking at discrimination, the question is not whether a suitable comparator can be found to show that somebody was treated less favourably, but whether they were a victim of malign intent.

This is attractive to people who wish to maintain the status quo.

I used to write letters and sign petitions for Amnesty in the cause of freeing political prisoners. A clear focus which was easy to understand. I didn't consciously stop but I think I must have picked up on what was a clear drift away from this mission. I was shocked when they stopped supporting Alexei Navalny - one of the bravest politicians imprisoned by Putin's regime - because of his anti immigration stance. Now they appear to think the left-wing omnicause is reason enough to support any old unevidenced nonsense.

I think a lot of us here on MN did. I highly doubt as many of these men or their male allies did.

This is one of the many things that annoys me intensely about the whole omnicause thing - people can do good/brave/amazing things but one step out of line and that's it, you're cancelled. |t's complete purity or you're an actual Nazi. How do the proponents of this justify this to themselves?

@nicepotoftea is so right that AI’s conception of rights has become conservative.

They’ve moved to a position where believing and expressing the right political ideas is what earns you rights.

That’s diametrically opposite where they started.

If "rights" are conditional upon not committing wrongthink, then they aren't actually rights.

Amnesty questioned by watchdog over JK Rowling charity row

https://www.thetimes.com/article/978ed590-acb3-4aa2-ab0d-ccf434313c88?shareToken=1e8fed8d3a84cd38df1511cb536411ac

Op-ed discussing Amnesty's recent behaviour and its effect on women's organisations:

http://archive.today/yZ36k

Some things, once broken, cannot be fixed. Amnesty International UK falls into this category. How can anyone possibly take seriously a human rights organisation that has attacked Beira’s Place, among scores of feminist organisations and charities, simply for their belief that women’s sex is material to their experience of the world?

Amnesty’s offence in this instance was not merely to misinterpret the actions and intentions of the organisations that appeared in this report. It was to paint a target on their backs.
Actions have consequences and among the consequences in this instance has been a huge uptick in the amount of abuse received by feminist organisations named in the report.

Across social media – especially Bluesky – the lies peddled by Amnesty have been used to justify appalling attacks. Amnesty’s horrendous attack on women who dare to prioritise women has made those women less safe. And if those women are less safe, then aren’t all women?

And even when the law does intervene, ‘allies’ drag their heels. It took more than a year for the UK Government to issue guidance on the Supreme Court ruling that, in law, sex is a matter of biology not because this was a complex matter but because the Labour Party is still in the grip of gender ideologues.

For years, across the public sector, gender activists have been getting away with ignoring the law when it comes to women’s sex-based rights: activist groups have bullied staff who push back against the notion that sex can be changed at will; trade unions have abandoned women stripped of their legal rights, and dignity, at work; and political leaders have encouraged the whole damned mess.

It is long past time for examples to be made of those who got us to this dark place. Amnesty’s demise might finally focus minds in the public sector where, even now, taxpayers’ money sustains organisations committed to spreading the dangerous lie that women who wish to retain their sex-based rights are bigots.

The many women defamed by Amnesty International UK as ‘anti-rights’ are, in fact, hugely courageous human rights defenders who have faced down scores of violent attacks and relentless death and rape threats.

This they have endured while being characterised by cowardly politicians as bigots.

I like the last part

"It is difficult to see, right now, how Amnesty International UK survives this crisis of its own making. At the very least, it must cost every member of the management team and board their positions. Better, though, to let the organisation go and for its demise to be as public as possible.

Every single organisation still jumping to the orders of trans activists needs to see that the jig’s up. They need to gaze upon Amnesty and shudder.

With its grotesque attacks on women’s rights and the feminists who fight to protect them, Amnesty International UK has rendered itself worthless."

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Thanks to Amnesty being terrible the Charity Commission has had to act. They never did this when women's orgs asked them. So Amnesty through being awful had advanced women's rights significantly. Talk about poetic justice. It would have taken many months to get this statement without them.

Thread.

Charity Commission offers interim update on provisions of EHRC’s code that clarify the law on matters of sex and gender

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5557111-charity-commission-offers-interim-update-on-provisions-of-ehrcs-code-that-clarify-the-law-on-matters-of-sex-and-gender

The implications of Amnesty's actions are going to reverberate for a while and are still going.