JK Rowling and other gender-critical campaigners have reacted furiously after a report from human rights organisation Amnesty International criticised their work.
A new report from the group has been published examining the “rise of an anti-rights movement targeting the rights of women and LGBT+ people in the UK”. The updated report, which was first published in 2025, identifies a list of "anti-rights organisations".
This year the study adds 51 gender-critical groups to the collection. Among them are Beira's Place, a sexual violence support centre founded by Rowling in 2022 which will not provide services to trans women.
Other named organisations are Women Scotland, and policy group Murray Blackburn Mackenzie, who campaign to protect what they describe as "sex-based rights".
Amnesty's report said the groups were named because they “visibly oppose the rights” of LGBT+ people.
Gender-critical campaigners have reacted with anger to the list, with suggestions that legal action could be taken.
Rowling wrote on social media: "It appears that (as many of us have suspected for years) Amnesty believes certain kinds of humans don’t deserve rights: women, girls and those who are proudly same-sex attracted. I hope donors from those groups are taking note."
According to Amnesty, its mission is fighting for a world where "everyone can enjoy the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".
Among the issues it lists as its key causes, women's rights and abortion rights feature prominently.
Elsewhere, Murray Blackburn Mackenzie, a gender-critical policy analysis group, wrote to Amnesty International regarding the report.
They asked the charity to "please set out, by specific reference to our work, your reasoning for publishing this statement about us".
Murdo Fraser, a Scottish Tory MSP with deep ties to the gender-critical movement, also stepped in to call on the Charity Commission to "investigate" Amnesty.
"What an utter disgrace [Amnesty] is," he said. "Once a credible human rights organisation, it has been hijacked by woman-hating extremists who will even attack a rape crisis centre."
A For Women Scotland spokesperson said: "For Women Scotland is only 'anti-rights' if you don't consider women to be entitled to any rights in law or public life.
"This report is offensive stupid and unworthy of a once great organisation – it's sad that Amnesty has sunk so low as to defame prominent women's organisations, including a rape crisis centre and support networks for abused wives and children.
"We won a landmark case on women's rights at the Supreme Court where Amnesty intervened with their best legal arguments against us. That the judges were unpersuaded should have given Amnesty pause for thought – instead they have chosen to launch an ill-advised attack, and one that surely risks attracting the attention of the Charity Commission."
In its report, Amnesty warned that the UK had now fallen from first to 22nd place in the ILGA-Europe (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association).
