The Charity Commission has escalated its engagement with Amnesty International UK to a compliance case, after it published a report describing the author JK Rowling’s sexual violence charity as “anti-rights”.
This follows Amnesty International UK’s decision to permanently remove the report, which listed Rowling’s Beira’s Place among more than 100 organisations it classed as “anti-rights”, including fellow charities Sex Matters and the LGB Alliance.
Beira’s Place was founded by the openly gender-critical author in 2022 as a women-only support centre, following a row regarding a transgender woman’s then-leadership of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.
The report by Amnesty International UK, seen by Third Sector, positioned Beira’s Place as part of a growing “organised anti-rights movement targeting the rights of women and LGBT+ people” in the UK.
It said the “vast majority” of the 117 organisations listed in the report were gender critical and that one in three were registered charities.
Amnesty International UK has since removed the report from its website and expressed “regret” about its publication, saying it was uploaded without going through established internal review processes.
The charity also said it would not republish the briefing.
Lawyers acting on behalf of Beira’s Place last week warned of intent to sue the human rights charity, saying the report is “defamatory” and could damage the support centre’s reputation.
Rowling has also invited other organisations to apply to her fund to cover legal costs, should they wish to sue Amnesty International UK over the report.
The human rights charity filed a serious incident report with the Charity Commission, which has since escalated its initial assessment to a regulatory compliance case.
A spokesperson for the commission said: “We have opened a regulatory compliance case to further assess concerns raised with us about a briefing published by Amnesty International UK Charitable Trust.
“As part of this we are engaging with the charity’s trustees to gather more information.
“In line with our guidance, the charity has submitted a serious incident report.”
A spokesperson for Amnesty International UK said: “We regret that this briefing was uploaded to our website without going through the established internal review processes that are in place to ensure consistency, accuracy and alignment with Amnesty International UK section positions.
“Its use of language does not reflect the position of Amnesty International UK section, which is why it was promptly removed,” the spokesperson said.
“We remain committed to defending human rights, including both the rights of women and girls, and the rights of trans people.
“We are engaging fully with the Charity Commission to provide all necessary information.”