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 Victory! Texas Appeal Court Blocks Execution (USA: UA 72.17)
On 7 April, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution in the case of Paul Storey, who was scheduled to be put to death on 12…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Activist Dr. Ali Esa Mansoor Al-Ekri Released (Bahrain: UA 296.11)
Dr. Ali Esa Mansoor al-Ekri, a Bahraini consultant surgeon and activist, has been released after completing his five-year prison sentence. He was a prisoner of conscience.
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Bipolar Disorder Not Raised at Trial, Execution Set (USA: UA 68/17)
Jack Jones, aged 52, is scheduled to be executed in Arkansas on 24 April for a murder committed in 1995. The jurors who sentenced him to death did not know…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Fair Trial Concern Revisited As Execution Looms (USA: UA 67/17)
Stacey Johnson, aged 47, is scheduled to be executed in Arkansas on 20 April for a 1993 murder. Three state Supreme Court Justices argued that he was deprived of a…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Execution Set Despite Diagnosis Of Schizophrenia (USA: UA 66/17)
Bruce Ward is scheduled to be executed in Arkansas on 17 April. He has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. In custody since 1989, he has been on death row for…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Paramilitary Invasion Of Humanitarian Zones (Colombia: UA 62/17)
Inhabitants of the Jiguamiandó river basin have reported the presence of paramilitary groups in their territory. The increase in paramilitary activity in these humanitarian zones is putting the Indigenous and…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Hundreds Of Roma At Risk Of Forced Evacuation (Italy: UA 63/17)
A community of approximately 1300 Romanian Roma is facing an imminent forced eviction from the informal settlement of Gianturco in Naples, in southern Italy. Around 200 of the Roma will…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Execution Set After 25 Years On Death Row (USA: UA 64/17)
Don Davis is scheduled to be executed in Arkansas on 17 April. He has been on death row for 25 years, having been sentenced to death in 1992 for a…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Clemency Board To Hear What Jury Never Did (USA: UA 60/17)
Marcel Williams, aged 46, is due to be executed in Arkansas on 24 April. The jury never heard any mitigating evidence about his childhood of severe abuse and trauma. That…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Trial Ongoing Against Indigenous Defenders (Argentina: UA 58/17)
Despite the fact that the oral trial scheduled for 20 March against three members of the Chañaral Wichà Indigenous community for defending their territory was suspended, the legal proceedings which…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Virginia Execution Reset As Doubts Persist (USA: UA 55/17)
Ivan Teleguz, a Ukrainian national, is scheduled to be executed in Virginia on 25 April. He maintains his innocence of the 2001 murder for which he was sent to death…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Over 300 Displaced Due To Paramilitary Incursion (Colombia: UA 56/17)
An incursion by paramilitaries and subsequent armed confrontation between them and guerrilla groups forced a mass displacement of families and the potential confinement of surrounding communities in Peña Azul, Chocó…