Amnesty International UK has expressed "regret" over the publication of a report that labelled dozens of Christian, pro-life and gender critical organisations as "anti-rights".
The report was hastily removed from Amnesty's website last week after it triggered a huge backlash, with JK Rowling and John Cleese among the high profile figures denouncing it.
At the time, Amnesty said the report had been temporarily withdrawn so that an internal review could be carried out.
In a further statement addressing the furore on Monday, Amnesty International UK said the report had not gone through the proper internal checks before being published on its website.
"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's positions," a spokesperson said.
"Its use of language does not reflect the position of Amnesty International UK which is why it was promptly removed.
"We remain committed to defending human rights, including both the rights of women and the rights of trans people.
"Human rights protections are strongest when they apply equally to everyone, and no community should be singled out for unfair treatment or denied their dignity and rights."
The report had claimed that the UK faced a "growing threat" from an "anti-rights movement" which it alleged was "fostering moral panic" and working to "roll back human rights protections”, especially for women and LGBT+ people.
The report called on the Charity Commission to review the charitable status of an extensive list of organisations that supposedly formed this "anti-rights movement".
Numerous Christian and pro-life groups were listed, including 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 - all of which are socially conservative.
They rejected being labelled "anti-rights" and expressed regret over Amnesty's drift from its roots, having been founded by a devout Christian to be a voice for religious and political prisoners of conscience.
Ciarán Kelly, Director of The Christian Institute, said: “Amnesty has fallen a long way from its origins defending prisoners of conscience. Now it has a pick ‘n’ mix approach to human rights.
“Tragically, this doesn’t include the right to life for babies in the womb, the rights of women being exploited through prostitution, or the rights of freedom of conscience and speech.”
Many of the organisations on the report's blacklist were pro-life and crisis pregnancy centres.
Pro-life advocate Fleur Elizabeth Meston said: “It is rather sad to see Amnesty International, founded by a devout Christian to defend prisoners of conscience, now branding people with the ‘wrong’ consciences as ‘anti-rights’.
“Its founder, Peter Benenson, built Amnesty around freedom of thought, conscience, religion and expression. Today, Amnesty treats disagreement on abortion and sex-based rights, and even belief in Christian teachings, as though they were a threat to humanity.
“Saying biological sex matters is not anti-rights. Campaigning to protect unborn children is not anti-rights. In fact, those of us who hold these beliefs just want human rights for women and babies too.
“Amnesty can waste its time creating these reports, rather than helping those in real danger around the world, but smearing lawful, mainstream organisations as ‘anti-rights’ is completely unworthy of its founding mission.”
Amnesty faced particularly strong criticism for including on the list Beira's Place, a service for female victims of sexual assault that was founded by JK Rowling.
Also accused of being "anti-rights" was For Women Scotland, which secured the landmark Supreme Court ruling declaring that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. It was among the groups demanding an apology.
