Amnesty International declares JK Rowling’s sexual assault crisis centre ‘anti-rights’
JK Rowling. (Getty)
Human rights organisation Amnesty International UK has described JK Rowling’s sexual assault crisis centre as being “anti-rights”.
Beira’s Place in Edinburgh was founded by Rowling in 2022 to “provide practical and emotional help to women in a safe and supportive environment.” It describes itself as being a “women-only” centre, operating “in accordance with the Equality Act 2010”.
In a new report from Amnesty, titled A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK, the organisation outlines the erosion of women’s and LGBTQ+ rights in the UK.
“To understand the rise of an anti-rights movement targeting the rights of women and LGBT+
people in the UK, it is important to situate it within the broader context of a general deterioration in human rights protections,” the report’s summary reads.
“Successive governments have introduced legislation that severely restricts the rights to protest and freedom of assembly and have passed increasingly restrictive immigration and asylum laws that raise concerns about the UK’s compliance with its international legal obligations.”
The report also names a list of “anti-rights actors”, which it defines as “formal or informal groups, individuals, private and state actors whose aim is to restrict human rights by undermining human rights protections in law and practice”.
“Some of these groups describe themselves as ‘anti-gender’ because they visibly oppose the rights and equality of women and LGBT+ people. However, by targeting women and LGBT+ people, they also challenge a fundamental human rights principle: that human rights belong to everyone equally,” the report continues.
“Human rights are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. When the rights of one group are restricted, protections for others can also be weakened, even where the effects are not immediately visible.”
Included at the end of the report is a list of “anti-rights organisations” that have been identified by Amnesty.
Beira’s Place is recorded as a registered company under the “gender critical” section alongside groups like LGB Alliance, For Women Scotland and Sex Matters, among others.
Other “anti-rights actor” types include anti-abortion, Christian right policy/advocacy and conversion practices.
