Amnesty International UK withdraws report that branded Christian groups 'anti-rights'
Amnesty International UK has withdrawn and expressed "regret" over a report that drew criticism for labelling dozens of Christian and pro-life organisations—including the Christian Institute, the Evangelical Alliance UK, and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales—as “anti-rights”.
The report claimed that the United Kingdom faced a growing threat from an “anti-rights movement” allegedly seeking to “roll back human rights protections”, particularly for women and LGBT+ people. It called on the Charity Commission to review the charitable status of numerous organisations, including several Christian and pro-life groups such as The Christian Institute, the Evangelical Alliance UK, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Christian Concern, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), and CARE.
The Amnesty International UK report futher listed crisis pregnancy centres as “anti-rights groups”, claiming that they were “established by anti-abortion organisations” and sought to “discourage women and pregnant people from accessing abortion care”.
Following strong public criticism, Amnesty International UK removed the report from its website and later acknowledged that it had not undergone the organisation's standard internal review procedures. In a public statement, Amnesty expressed “regret” that the briefing had been uploaded “without going through the established internal review processes” and stated that its language “does not reflect the position of Amnesty International UK”, explaining that this was why it had been removed.
The organisations named in the report rejected the accusation that they were “anti-rights”. Ciarán Kelly, Director of The Christian Institute, said that Amnesty had “fallen a long way from its origins defending prisoners of conscience” and criticised what he described as a “pick ‘n’ mix approach to human rights” that no longer adequately protects freedom of conscience and expression.
Pro-life advocate Fleur Elizabeth Meston likewise criticised the report, arguing that Amnesty's founder, Peter Benenson, had built the organisation around “freedom of thought, conscience, religion and expression”. She added that “saying biological sex matters is not anti-rights” and that “campaigning to protect unborn children is not anti-rights”.
The report also attracted criticism for including organisations with differing missions and viewpoints, among them Beira's Place, a support service for female victims of sexual assault founded by J.K. Rowling, and For Women Scotland, which successfully challenged the legal definition of “woman” before the UK Supreme Court earlier this year.
Another organisation named in the report argued that “human rights should safeguard individual conscience and choice, not privilege one contested ideology while excluding all others.”
The episode has raised broader concerns about the increasing use of defamatory language against Christian and socially conservative organisations, such as the label “anti-rights”, to describe individuals and groups expressing traditional religious or ethical convictions. Labelling lawful organisations advocating protected beliefs as opponents of human rights risks undermining freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and the pluralism that forms a cornerstone of democratic societies.
The recent OSCE/ODIHR Guide on Understanding Anti-Christian Hate Crimes and Addressing the Security Needs of Christian Communities further warns that “anti-Christian hate crimes do not take place in a vacuum” and that “political discourse and narratives have helped to perpetuate anti-Christian bias and stereotypes”.
Source: Christian Today, Premier Christianity