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: Sentence Confirmed On Saudi Arabian Writer (Saudi Arabia: UA 41.17)
Saudi Arabian writer Nazeer al-Majed was informed on 15 May that the Court of Appeal of the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) in Riyadh has upheld his seven-year prison sentence. Nazeer…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: University Students Arrested After Protest (India: UA 145.17)
Eight university students and three members of a political party’s student wing in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh have been in detention since 7 June. The students had participated in a protest…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Exiled Journalist Receiving Death Threats Online (Lesotho: UA 142.17)
Exiled investigative journalist Keiso Mohloboli has been receiving death threats and intimidation online after publishing a Facebook post.
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Release Amnesty International Chair Taner Kılıç (Turkey: UA 138.17)
Chair of Amnesty International Turkey Taner Kılıç was detained on 6 June, wrongly accused of membership of the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization”. On 9 June he has been remanded in pre-trial…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Torture Survivor Released In Chechnya (Belarus: UA 132.17)
Murad Amriev was handed over to Russian law enforcement officers at 3am on 9 June after having been returned from Belarus where he unsuccessfully attempted to claim asylum. He has…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Two Boys Jailed For Life After Unfair Trial (Somalia: UA 96.17)
Two boys have been imprisoned for life for murder. The boys say they were forced to confess to the murder.
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Indigenous Defenders Attacked And At Risk (Guatemala: UA 135.17)
Aura Lolita Chávez, a renowned Guatemalan human rights defender and Indigenous leader, and members of her organization the K’iche People’s Council (CPK) were threatened and attacked by unidentified armed men.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Two Sudanese Activists At Risk Of Deportation (Saudi Arabia: UA 9.17)
Sudanese activists Elgassim Mohamed Seed Ahmed and Elwaleed Imam Hassan Taha are at imminent risk of deportation from Saudi Arabia to Sudan, where they would be at risk of torture…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Hundreds Stranded At Mexico-Guatemala Border (Mexico/Guatemala: UA 130.17)
Approximately 400 people from rural Guatemala are stranded at the Mexico-Guatemala border in temporary shelters and tents, without adequate access to water, food, or medical supplies, after a Guatemalan court…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Three Charges Against Journalist Dropped (Madagascar: UA 108.17)
Fernand Cello, a Malagasy investigative journalist, has had three charges which were related to his journalism work dropped. These charges were related to his journalism work. He is also now…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Saudi Arabian Activist Held Incommunicado (Saudi Arabia: UA 124.17)
Saudi Arabian human rights defender Mohammad al-Otaibi has been detained incommunicado in Saudi Arabia since 28 May, after he was deported from Qatar. He is a prisoner of conscience and…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Human Rights Defender Threatened With Violence (Bangladesh: UA 131.17)
Prominent human rights defender Sultana Kamal has received threats of violence from the Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam, following comments she made on a TV talk show. The authorities must take immediate…