PRESS RELEASE

Amnesty International Under Fire for Sex Bias

Washington, DC., Aug. 15/05/TRC Media/ – Amnesty International has come under fire for gender bias in its current family violence campaign, which groups are calling misleading and false.

On July 22 Amnesty International issued a press release claiming an "epidemic" of family violence and announcing a grassroots campaign to push for rapid Congressional approval of the Violence Against Women Act. [http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0722-10.htm]

The Amnesty announcement ignored the fact that women are just as likely to commit family violence as men, and men sustain over one- third of injuries arising from domestic violence [http://www.mediaradar.org/research.php#waj]

"Amnesty International is giving the impression that domestic violence is a problem that only affects women. That's a slap in the face to the 835,000 men who are assaulted by their partners every year," according to RADAR spokesman Mike Geanoulis. "Amnesty is creating a human rights double standard that leaves male victims silenced and forgotten."

The groups that are criticizing Amnesty's family violence program include the American Coalition for Fathers and Children; National Congress of Fathers and Children, New Hampshire Chapter; Stop Abuse for Everyone; and RADAR (Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting).

Recently Boston Globe columnist Cathy Young called for VAWA to "abolish the special role of feminist-dominated domestic violence coalitions in shaping federally-funded domestic violence programs." [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/07/25/ending_bias_in_domestic_assault_law/]

"Amnesty International was once a respected human rights organization," explains Mike Geanoulis. "But now their campaigns seem to be based more on ideology than on actual violations of human rights."

R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women working to improve the effectiveness of our nation's approach to solving domestic violence. http://mediaradar.org.