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: JOURNALIST PROSECUTED BY A MILITARY COURT (Tunisia: UA 62.22)
On June 11, 2022, two police officers in plainclothes arrested journalist Salah Attia. His arrest stems from a declaration he made on Al Jazeera TV the day before in which…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: HEALTH OF TORTURED IRANIAN DEFENDER AT RISK (Iran: UA 105.15)
Arbitrarily detained Iranian human rights defender Narges Mohammadi is being tortured and otherwise ill-treated in Shahr-e Rey prison in Varamin, outside Tehran, including by being intentionally denied the specialized healthcare…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: INDIGENOUS LAND DEFENDERS AT RISK (Canada: UA 61.22)
Wet’suwet’en land defenders in Canada are at risk of serious human rights violations and could be arrested on their territory by Canadian Police. Hereditary chiefs oppose a liquified natural gas…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: ACTIVIST RISKS PRISON TERM AS TRIAL ENDS (Russian Federation: UA 138.20)
The trial against Yulia Tsvetkova, an artist and activist from Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East, is coming to an end. On June 14, 2022, the prosecution requested a jail…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: ARRESTED AT 14, TORTURED, NOW FACES EXECUTION (Saudi Arabia: UA 60.22)
Abdullah al-Huwaiti, who was arrested when he was 14, is at imminent risk of execution in Saudi Arabia. On June 13, 2022, the Appeals Court upheld his death sentence after…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: FINGER AMPUTATION RISK FOR EIGHT PRISONERS (Iran: UA 59.22)
At least eight prisoners in Greater Tehran Penitentiary, Tehran province, are at grave risk of having their finger-amputation sentences carried out imminently. At least three of the men were convicted…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS MURDERED (Brazil: UA 54.22)
On the morning of June 5, 2022, Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, environmental and Indigenous peoples’ rights defenders, were disappeared in the Javari Valley, in the Brazilian Amazon. On June…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: REPRESSION OF INDIGENOUS-LED PROTESTS (Ecuador: UA 58.22)
On June 14, 2022, around 0:29 a.m., security forces detained Leónidas Iza, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, in the province of Cotopaxi. He was held incommunicado…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: TEXAS EXECUTION SCHEDULED FOR CRIME AT 18 (USA: UA 57.22)
Ramiro Gonzales is scheduled to be executed in Texas on July 13, 2022. He was sentenced to death in September 2006 for a murder committed in January 2001 when he…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: RELEASE HUNGER-STRIKING ACTIVISTS (Thailand: UA 56.22)
Since June 2, 2022, two women have been on hunger strike calling for their right to bail. They have been detained since May 3, 2022. Authorities have started criminal proceedings…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: UNJUSTLY JAILED COUPLE TRIED BY EMERGENCY COURT (Egypt: UA 55.22)
Aisha el-Shater, 41, daughter of Muslim Brotherhood senior leader Khairat el-Shater, and her husband lawyer Mohamed Abo Horeira are on trial by the Emergency State Security Court on bogus charges…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS DISAPPEARED (Brazil: UA 54.22)
In the morning of June 5, 2022, environmental and Indigenous peoples’ rights defenders Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips were reported missing, after last being seen in the Javari Valley, in…