Bad Amnesty

The Guardian reports:

A recent review into Amnesty’s workplace culture warned of bullying, nepotism and an “us v them” dynamic that threatened the organisation’s credibility as a human rights champion. The report, undertaken by the KonTerra Group and led by psychologists, was commissioned after the suicides of two staff members last year.
The report warned that while there was a risk of vicarious trauma due to the nature of Amnesty’s work, most wellbeing issues among staff were driven by the organisation’s adversarial culture, failures in management and pressures of workload. The review was based on a survey of 475 staff, 70% of the workforce of Amnesty’s international secretariat, and on scores of interviews.
“There were multiple reports of managers belittling staff in meetings, deliberately excluding certain staff from reporting, or making demeaning, menacing comments like ‘you’re shit!’ or ‘you should quit! If you stay in this position, your life will be a misery,’” the report said.
In the letter, the senior leadership team acknowledged the review’s finding that structural and cultural challenges had been prevalent in the organisation for decades, and had been exacerbated by a restructuring programme.

So they’ve been a toxic place to work for decades. So busy lecturing everyone else they forgot to practice what they preach.

Amnesty’s work culture problems were first revealed last May, when the Times reported that Gaëtan Mootoo had killed himself after complaining of stress and overwork. Six weeks later, Rosalind McGregor, 28, an intern at Amnesty’s Geneva office, was found dead at her family home in Surrey.

Terrible, especially for a human rights organisation.

Sad it took two suicides for Amnesty to admit they have a problem.