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: STUDENT UNJUSTLY JAILED OVER ‘FALSE NEWS’ (Egypt: UA 15.21)
Egyptian researcher and master’s student Ahmed Samir Santawy went on hunger strike on June 23, 2021 after an emergency court sentenced him to four years’ imprisonment for publishing “false news”.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: VENEZUELAN DEFENDERS UNDER ARREST (Venezuela: UA 75.21)
Javier Tarazona, Director of local NGO Fundaredes, Rafael Tarazona and Omar de Dios García, Fundaredes’ activists were arbitrarily detained on July 2, 2021 after attempting to report harassment from security…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: PEACEFUL ACTIVISTS JAILED FOR CALL TO STRIKE (Democratic Republic of Congo: UA 74.21)
Human rights defenders, Elisée Lwatumba Kasonia and Eric Muhindo Muvumbu were arrested on April 19, 2021 by the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in the town of Butembo, in the Democratic…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: ACTIVIST SENTENCED TO 3 YEAR IMPRISONMENT (Guinea: 154.20)
On June 10, 2021, Oumar Sylla (alias Foniké Mengué), a pro-democracy activist and mobilization coordinator for National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC in French), was sentenced by…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: ENVIRONMENTALISTS AT RISK OF IMPRISONMENT (Indonesia: UA 23.21)
Syamsul Bahri and Samsir, father and son from a farmer community in North Sumatra province, are convicted of assault following weeks of trial over a spurious charge that is believed…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: CRACKDOWN ON YOUTH ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS (Cambodia: UA 73.21)
Six youth environmental activists have been wrongfully imprisoned in retaliation for their peaceful environmental activism. The activists are members of Mother Nature Cambodia, a well-known environmental group that campaigns against…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: TIBETAN MONK JAILED FOR ONLINE MESSAGES (China: UA 72.21)
Tibetan monk Rinchen Tsultrim was sentenced to four years and six months in prison in March 2020 without a fair trial. His family members only learned of the sentencing a…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: ACTIVIST SPENDS A YEAR IN PRISON UNJUSTLY (Egypt: UA 139.20)
Egyptian human rights activist Sanaa Seif is serving an unjust 18 months’ sentence in Al-Qanater Prison for women following her conviction on bogus charges of spreading “false news”, “misusing social…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ARBITRARILY DETAINED (Republic of Congo: UA 63.21)
Congolese human rights activists, Alexandre Ibacka Dzabana and Christ Dongui, are being arbitrary detained in connection to their human rights work and criticism of the government. In March, they were…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: LACK OF A SECOND DOSE ENDANGERS OVER 1.4 MILLION (Nepal: UA 71.21)
Over 1.4 million people of at-risk populations in Nepal took their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine between March 7 and 15, 2021. To be fully immunized, and to…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER ARBITRARILY DETAINED (Viet Nam: UA 44.21)
Prominent human rights defender and advocate Nguyen Thuy Hanh, was arrested on April 7, 2021 and charged under Article 117 of the Criminal Code for “opposing the State of the Socialist…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: VIKTAR PAULAU MAY HAVE BEEN EXECUTED (Belarus: UA 168.19)
Viktar Paulau has been at imminent risk of execution after the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld his conviction and death sentence on November 12, 2019. His sister was denied permission…