Which organization employed J.K. Rowling as a researcher before she became a novelist?

Before becoming a novelist, J.K. Rowling worked as a researcher for Amnesty International.

She was employed at Amnesty International’s London office, where she used her language skills as a researcher and bilingual secretary. Amnesty International is a global human-rights organisation known for campaigning against abuses and documenting violations around the world.

Rowling has described encountering reports of human-rights abuses during this period. Those experiences are part of the biographical context often mentioned when discussing her later interest in themes such as prejudice, persecution, and the abuse of institutional power. They should not be treated as direct explanations for every plot element in Harry Potter.

This job came before her move to Portugal, where she taught English, and before the publication of her first novel. It is sometimes incorrectly remembered as work for a children’s charity or a government body, but the organisation was Amnesty International.