What is the Urgent Action Network?
The concept is simple: Take Action, Change a Life.
Urgent Actions ask our community of volunteers to flood the mailboxes, inboxes, phones and social media of authorities when someone is in imminent danger of human rights violations. Your letters, emails, phone calls, faxes and Tweets have helped to halt executions, support human rights defenders and free prisoners of conscience—people jailed solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs and identity.
Please note that the US postal service has suspended service to some countries in light of COVID-19 – reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions.
How Does It Work?
STEP 1: Sign Up Today!
Sign up to receive Urgent Action emails. You can choose to receive all emails or a more limited number. You can also choose to receive emails on specific issues or regions.
STEP 2: Take Action Now!
Urgent Action emails specify the case, local and international government officials to contact, their contact information and suggestions about what to write, say or Tweet.
Our Educator’s Guide
Are you an educator looking for ways to engage your students in human rights? Find out how your students can show their power through letter writing!
In many cases, your action on these cases leads to better conditions for prisoners and their eventual release. Those individuals at the center of these Urgent Actions often send their thanks to Amnesty International, citing that these messages serve as a source of hope.
Browse Urgent Actions
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Trade Unionist In Need Of Medical Care (Iran: UA 306.13)
Iranian trade unionist Reza Shahabi was forced to return to prison on 9 August, prompting him to go on hunger strike in protest. After over 40 days on hunger strike,…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Detained Opposition Activist Denied Lawyer Visits (Sudan: UA 213.17)
Nabil Mohamed El-Niwari, a Sudanese political activist and member of the opposition party Sudan Congress, was arrested by the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in Khartoum on 5…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Religious Minority Leader Released But Still At Risk (Algeria: UA 205.17)
On 13 September the Court of First Instance in Ain Tedles, Algeria convicted and sentenced President of the Ahmadiyya religious community, Mohamed Fali to a 6 month suspended prison term…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Activists Held Incommunicado May Face Life In Prison (Viet Nam: UA 204.17)
Three Vietnamese activists, Trương Minh Đức, Nguyễn Trung Tôn, and Phạm Văn Trội, are being held incommunicado at B14 prison in Hà Nội after their arrests on 30 July 2017.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: US National Sentenced To Death In Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia: UA 188.17)
US national Robert Slaten was sentenced to death on 13 July in Saudi Arabia on appeal. A court convicted him of the murder of his wife after a grossly unfair…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Palestinian Circus Performer Released (Israel/OPT: UA 12.16)
On 12 June, Ofer Military Court, in the occupied West Bank near Ramallah, renewed the administrative detention order of Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha for three months. The Palestinian circus performer…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Saudi Arabian Prisoner Of Conscience On Trial (Saudi Arabia: UA 35.15)
Saudi Arabian activist Issa al-Nukheifi was brought to trial before the counter-terror court on 21 August, where he first learned of the charges against him. The charges and the trial…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Security Measures For Defender Implemented (Mexico: UA 169.17)
In recent weeks authorities have implemented some security measures for Mario Luna, human rights defender and leader of the Indigenous Yaquí community in Sonora state, northern Mexico, following an incident…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Detainee Held Incommunicado Again (Venezuela: UA 194.17)
After being disappeared for 23 days, Raúl Isaías Baduel is once again being held incommunicado at the National Intelligence Service facilities in Caracas, denied access to his family and lawyers.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Prisoner Of Conscience Sentenced To Death (Iran: UA 212.14)
On 27 August a Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced spiritual teacher Mohammad Ali Taheri to death for “spreading corruption on earth” for establishing the spiritual group Erfan-e Halgheh. He has…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Maldives To Resume Executions By September (Maldives: UA 179.17)
According to statements by the Maldives President, the death penalty would be implemented ‘by the end of September’. If carried out, these would be the first executions in the country…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Independent News Director Detained (Azerbaijan: UA 200.17)
Mehman Aliyev, the director of independent news agency Turan, has been arbitrarily detained since 24 August on what appears to be trumped up charges of tax evasion and other offenses…