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: ACTIVISTS CONVICTED BY EMERGENCY COURT (Egypt: UA 132.19)
On December 20, 2021, the Emergency State Security Court sentenced activist Alaa Abdel Fattah to five years’ imprisonment and human rights lawyer Mohamed Baker to four years in prison, after…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: STOP U.S. ABUSES AGAINST HAITIAN PEOPLE (USA: UA 99.21)
Thousands of Haitians have traveled to the US-Mexico border to seek safety in the USA. The US government has responded with human rights violations, including the forcible removal of thousands…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: DETAINED JOURNALIST MUST GET A FAIR TRIAL (Morocco: UA 136.20)
On July 19, 2021, the Casablanca Court of First Instance convicted Moroccan journalist, Omar Radi, of espionage and rape and sentenced him to six years in prison after a trial…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: ILL-TREATED IRANIAN LGBTI DEFENDER AT RISK (Iran: UA 05.22)
An Iranian gender nonconforming human rights defender Zahra Sedighi-Hamadani, known as Sareh, has been arbitrarily detained in Urumieh, West Azerbaijan province, since October 27, 2021 due to her real or…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: HEALTH CONCERNS FOR DETAINED BRITISH NATIONAL (Yemen: UA 04.22)
Luke Symons, a 29-year-old British national, arbitrarily detained by the Huthi de facto authorities for more than four years in Sanaa, Yemen, has been moved to solitary confinement. His health…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: EX-MINISTER AND OFFICIAL ARBITRARILY DETAINED (Tunisia: UA 02.22)
On December 31, 2021, men in civilian clothing arrested former Justice Minister Noureddine Bhiri and Fathi Beldi, a former Interior Ministry employee, in Tunis and took them to undisclosed locations.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE FACE TRIAL (Honduras: UA 03.22)
Eight members of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Assets (CMDBCP), prisoners of conscience, continue in pre-trial detention in Yoro (North Honduras) after more than 28…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: YOUTH ARRESTED AT 17 AT RISK OF EXECUTION (Iran: UA 83.21)
Iranian youth Hossein Shahbazi is at risk of imminent execution for a crime that took place when he was 17 years old. His trial was marred by serious violations, including…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: ALABAMA EXECUTION SET – CALL FOR CLEMENCY (USA: UA 01.22)
Matthew Reeves, 18 years old at the time of the crime and now 43, is facing execution in Alabama on January 27, 2022. His death sentence has been upheld despite…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: FREE VENEZUELAN PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE (Venezuela: UA 75.21)
Javier Tarazona, Director of local NGO FundaREDES, was arbitrarily detained on July 2, 2021 after attempting to report harassment from security officers at the Attorney General’s Office in the city…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: STOP DEPORTATION OF FIVE ERITREANS FROM EGYPT (Egypt: UA 103.21)
Three Eritrean nationals, Mohamed Nour Ammar, Samar Mohamed Nour Ammar and Salem Tawlidi Adhanom, have been arbitrarily detained in Egypt without legal basis or access to asylum procedures since 2019.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYER UNDER HOUSE ARREST (USA: UA 105.21)
On December 9, 2021, Steven Donziger, a human rights lawyer and environmental rights defender, was released from jail to spend the rest of his sentence under house arrest. On October…