JK Rowling's rape support centre threatens court action against Amnesty
A legal letter sent on behalf of Beira’s Place accused the human rights charity of damaging its reputation
A sexual assault support centre founded by JK Rowling has threatened to take court action against Amnesty International UK after it was branded an “anti-rights group” by the charity.
A legal letter sent on behalf of Beira’s Place said the characterisation was “grossly offensive and entirely without foundation”, as well as “deeply damaging” to its reputation.
It has now demanded a public letter of apology, to be posted to the front page of the Amnesty website, as well as an undertaking that the allegations will not be repeated.
The letter says the Harry Potter author will also make a complaint to the charity commission.
It comes after a report by Amnesty International UK listed a number of “gender-critical organisations”, including Beira’s Place and the campaign group For Women Scotland, as “anti-rights”.
Beira’s Place was founded by Ms Rowling in Edinburgh in 2022 to provide a women-only support service for victims of sexual violence. It is not open to trans people who were born male.
Amnesty removed the report from its website over the weekend, and later said it was uploaded “without going through the established internal review processes” and did not reflect its position.
The briefing on the “anti-rights movement in the UK” argued there has been a significant decline in protections for LGBT+ rights.
It defined anti-rights actors as “formal and informal groups, individuals, private and state actors whose aim is to restrict human rights by undermining human rights protections in law and practice”.
In the letter, which Ms Rowling posted to X, legal representatives of Beira’s Place write: “In wrongly and maliciously categorising our client as ‘anti-rights’ the report is defamatory of Beira's Place and also constitutes a ‘malicious publication’ in terms of the Defamation and Malicious Publications (Scotland) Act 2021.
“To accuse our client of ‘targeting the rights of women or LGBT+ people’ is entirely false and deeply damaging to the reputation of Beira's Place and those who use it.
“Having access to a single sex support service is a basic right which any woman who has experience sexual violence should be entitled to.
“It is therefore beyond comprehension that a supposed human rights organisation would genuinely consider that the work done by Beira’s Place could be classed as ‘anti-rights’ or ‘targeting the rights of women’.”
The letter adds: “The report has wrongly labelled all associated with Beira's Place, including those accessing support, as anti-rights bigots who are seeking to weaken human rights.
“This is a shocking way to describe those who are seeking help to overcome the trauma of sexual violence.
“There is no basis for these allegations, and our client, with the support of its founder JK Rowling, will not sit back and allow the reputation of Beira's Place or those who access its support to be tarnished in this way.”
To avoid litigation, the letter demands that the report is permanently withdrawn, a public letter of apology is posted on the front page of the Amnesty website, and an undertaking is provided “that Amnesty will commission an external investigation into how an official report published in Amnesty's name could contain such egregious falsehoods”.
It adds: “In the event that Amnesty is not willing to agree to the foregoing we will instruct counsel to commence preparation for court action.”
Amnesty has been contacted for comment.
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