EUAN McCOLM: Amnesty can't wriggle free from its attack on JK Rowling's women's refuge. Here's what has to happen next...

Published: 17:56, 21 July 2026 | Updated: 18:06, 21 July 2026 A letter sent last week to Amnesty International UK by lawyers acting for a sexual violence support centre funded by JK Rowling was so ferocious that one almost pitied the recipients. Along with a demand for a public apology to Beira’s Place in Edinburgh – one of more than 100 organisations falsely branded ‘anti-rights’ in a now-withdrawn report published by Amnesty – the letter threatened court action. There was no messing about: if Amnesty did not do precisely what was demanded of it, there would be no mercy. After Ms Rowling posted a copy of the letter online, she was asked if it had been delivered by owl. Two weeks after Amnesty International UK published a report attacking organisations that believe in protecting women’s sex-based rights, the organisation is fighting for survival. It has received dozens of letters of complaint from those traduced in the report and lawsuits seem an inevitable next step. Defenders of Amnesty ask those horrified by its position on women’s rights to consider the bigger picture. Harry Potter author JK Rowling has taken issue with Amnesty International We are urged to think of its many years of great work. We are invited to consider whether the current backlash is proportionate. But Amnesty should not be allowed to wriggle free from this particular hook. Amnesty, which celebrated its 65th anniversary in May, has existed for decades to fight for those facing torture and oppression, in many cases because of their sex. Today, utterly corrupted by crank gender ideology, it is more concerned with promoting the demands of trans-identifying men than with protecting the rights of women and girls. When the backlash against Amnesty’s report came, swift and furious, the organisation fumbled. It removed the report, offering up an excuse about procedures missed, but it did not offer the full-throated apology that should have been forthcoming. And the reason for this is that while Amnesty may have removed the report from its website, the organisation believes – institutionally – that the feminists currently leading the battle to preserve women’s sex-based rights actually are rights-denying bigots. The evidence of this is in statement after statement made by Amnesty in support of the demands of trans-identifying men. Amnesty is just one of countless powerful organisations – the sort that influence governments – now completely captured by gender ideology. But everyone in a position of authority in any of these bodies should watch very closely as this scandal plays out. 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? When news broke that Beira’s Place was threatening legal action against Amnesty, there was much speculation about Ms Rowling’s anger. In this instance, she acted as her own Press spokesman, issuing a clarification online which read: ‘I’m often tickled by Press articles asserting that I’m furious about things that actually gave me a proper belly laugh. ‘This time, though, knock yourselves out. Amnesty’s attack on Beira’s Place has left me burning with the kind of fury that mounts with every passing hour.’ Given Ms Rowling has previously announced her willingness to support legal actions by any organisation or individual similarly defamed, things look especially bleak for Amnesty International UK. At this point, the best thing the organisation could do in the name of human rights is to close. The demise of this once noble body would stand as a reminder of the days when some of the most powerful and influential people in the world lost their minds and began attacking women for their refusal to accept men into single-sex safe spaces. For more than a decade, trans activists have acted with near impunity, no matter how outrageous their claims or disturbing their actions.  Theirs is a movement emboldened by the approval of the ‘progressive’ political class and treated with kid gloves by police who would not ignore the sort of violent rhetoric indulged at trans rights allies if it were heard anywhere else. Beira's Place board of directors (left to right) Susan Smith, JK Rowling, Johann Lamont, Margaret McCartney and Rhona Hotchkiss 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. It’s little wonder JK Rowling burns with a mounting fury. 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.