Amnesty International UK has issued an apology for reporting on the rise of anti-trans political organizing in the United Kingdom, and detailing how it is just one part of a broader anti-rights movement gaining traction in the country.
This came after a meeting between the head of Amnesty UK and Head of the anti-trans hate group Sex Matters Maya Forstater, which allegedly occurred earlier this week. In reaching out, Amnesty's Chief Executive told the decades-long campaigner against human rights that "it would be good for us to meet... in the spirit of a commitment to human rights.”
This was prompted after several of the anti-trans groups listed by name in Amnesty's report threatened to sue them for defamation, using money provided by Holocaust Denier and former children’s author J.K. Rowling.
The report detailed how funding for anti-trans groups rose by 1,958% from 2019 to 2024.
In its apology, Amnesty made special note of their supposed defamation against the Rowling-funded Beira’s Place, and several affiliated group, for describing them as "gender critical organisations, which we should not have collectively labelled as anti-rights." What goes unmentioned is that Beira's Place was founded for the explicit purpose of having a women's crisis center that deliberately excludes trans women as policy. Why this would not be considered "anti-rights" is not addressed.
Amnesty also apologized for the publication of the report itself, saying it "should never have been published, and full responsibility for this error rests with Amnesty International UK."
Amnesty concludes its apology to the anti-trans crisis center Beira's Place by assuring its supporters that they are "fully committed to defending the human rights, dignity, and equality of all marginalised groups, including women, girls, and members of the trans community."
This comes at the same time as the UK's segregation code for trans people is set to take effect on August 6.
At no point in any of its public statements has Amnesty been able to point to any factual errors made in its reporting on anti-trans groups. The anti-trans groups who threatened to sue them were only able to point to the allegedly defamatory nature of being labeled anti-trans, but not to any factual errors.
This is because UK law does not require a defendant to have made factual errors to sue them for defamation. According to Politico, all that is needed are "statements that could damage someone’s public image among “right-thinking members of society””. Unlike most democracies, UK law asserts that mere reputational damage is enough to defame someone.
Amnesty's reversal and subsequent apology makes sense in this light. If the Rowling-backed anti-trans groups had taken them to court, they would have far less money to represent themselves then their opponents would, meaning that a favorable outcome would be unlikely for them.
Their public line is now that their briefing fell significantly short" of their "highest standards of research, evidence and editorial oversight in all [their] publications", and that they will "commission an independent external review to learn from this moment." What this means for their future work remains to be seen.
Unlike Amnesty International UK, The Needle is not bound by UK defamation law, and cannot be sued for publishing factual information. For this reason, we have included the full report below. To read it as a PDF, you can click this link:
