Amnesty International has a culture of white privilege, with incidents of overt racism including senior staff using the “N-word” and micro-aggressive behavior, such as the touching of black colleagues’ hair, according to an internal review into its secretariat.
It came as eight current and former employees of Amnesty International UK (AIUK) described their own experiences of racial discrimination and issued a statement calling on senior figures to stand down.
“We joined Amnesty hoping to campaign against human rights abuses, but were instead let down through realizing that the organization actually helped perpetuate them,” said Katherine Odukoya, one of the whistle-blowers.
Representatives of both arms of the UK-based human rights organization apologized and pledged to make changes, with the director of AIUK citing “the uncomfortable fact that we have not been good enough.”
The internal review at Amnesty’s international secretariat, commissioned following the Black Lives Matter movement, recorded multiple examples of workers reporting alleged racism including: senior staff using the “N-word,” with colleagues labeled “over-sensitive” if they complained; systemic bias, including the capability of black staff being questioned consistently and without justification, and minority ethnic staff feeling disempowered and sidelined; and a lack of awareness or sensitivity to religious practices resulting in problematic comments and behavior.
A statement released alongside the report by the Amnesty International coalition leadership team said it was “sobered” by the findings.
“It is a timely reminder that discrimination, racism and anti-Black racism exist in our organisation. It has highlighted both the extent and systematic nature of racism and indicates we must address white privilege wherever it exists,” the statement said.
Separately, staff at AIUK, which is also based in London, made claims of racial discrimination, telling the Guardian there were similarities between their experiences and the culture at the international secretariat.
They described feeling “dehumanized” over their race and ethnicity over a number of years, with some reporting official grievances.
In a joint statement, two current and six former employees of AIUK called for the director, senior management team and board to resign, claiming the leadership “knowingly upheld racism and actively harmed staff from ethnic minority backgrounds.”
Odukoya, who worked within the campaigns and community organizing teams at AIUK, said that as a black woman she was constantly mentally exhausted navigating an environment that was “hostile to blackness.”
“There’s a hegemonic white middle-class culture that seemed to be protected and reproduced. White privilege was pervasive,” she said.
Odukoya described colleagues at AIUK commenting on her hair and requesting to touch it, making negative references to her “urban” accent and referring to her as the “black girl.”
She raised a grievance in 2019 concerning racial and gender discrimination, alleging that she had been manipulated into working above her pay grade without the correct remuneration.
AIUK did not uphold the claim, but reached a settlement with Odukoya in May last year.
Kieran Aldred, who worked for AIUK as an advocacy officer for three years until 2018 and is now head of policy at the gay rights charity Stonewall, also alleged that AIUK’s leadership was actively harmful to staff from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Aldred, 31, claimed that minority ethnic staff were overlooked for promotions, with pay reviews consistently favoring high-earning white senior leaders.
“Working for AIUK destroyed my self-confidence, my belief in my capabilities. I didn’t think I was skilled enough to do my job, that any organization would ever hire me, let alone promote me, and I suffered from ongoing depression and anxiety,” Aldred said.
AIUK director Kate Allen apologized, saying these were serious and challenging concerns, and the allegations would be taken seriously and investigated.
“We know that institutional racism exists in the UK and, like any other organization, we aren’t immune to this very real problem,” she said. “We recognize that we have not done enough to ensure that our organization is a truly inclusive one where everyone receives the same level of respect and opportunity, is valued equally and is able to be heard. We are reckoning with the uncomfortable fact that we have not been good enough and from this, we understand that we must change to become better.”
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