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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
The reason we could resist the ban and move forward was the international support and solidarity by Amnesty International activists around the world. We could not have gone further without your support.
I am very grateful for all the support I received while I was in prison. Life in prison was very difficult and I was treated badly, but the support of those who believed in me made me strong.
My case once again showed how important solidarity and attention are in protecting the freedom of speech and human rights. I admire your noble work and boundless courage, dear activists.
Browse Urgent Actions
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: OPPOSITION POLITICIAN UNDER HOUSE ARREST (Ethiopia: UA 69.21)
Dawud Ibsa, the chairman of the Oromo Liberation Front, an Ethiopian oppositional political party, has been placed under house arrest in his home in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, since…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: DIPLOMATIC ENGAGEMENT TO SOLVE CRISIS (Colombia: UA 62.21)
The national strike that began last April 28, 2021 continues with hundreds of mobilizations across the country. Authorities responded with stigmatization of protestors and excessive use of force causing human…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: JUSTICE FOR INDIGENOUS CHILDREN (Canada: UA 70.21)
On May 27, 2021 the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. Remains have also been found…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: SAHRAWI ACTIVIST DETAINED INCOMMUNICADO (Morocco: UA 37.21)
The family and lawyer of imprisoned Sahrawi activist Mohamed Lamine Haddi have not heard from him since April 9, 2021 when he called them each to tell them that the…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: MISSING AND ARBITRARILY DETAINED IN XINJIANG (China: UA 61.21)
More than 60 people from predominantly Muslim ethnic groups have been allegedly interned in camps or sentenced without a fair trial and sent to prison in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: TWO MEN FACE EXECUTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA (USA: 68.21)
Two executions by electric chair in South Carolina have been set over seven days, starting on June 18, 2021. The scheduling of these executions follows the enactment of a law…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Free Trans Woman from Indefinite Detention (USA: UA 67.21)
Maura, a transgender woman, has spent half her life living in the United States of America. Years ago, she sought safety in the US after experiencing relentless transphobic violence in…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: HALT THE IMMINENT EXECUTION OF YOUNG SAUDI (Saudi Arabia: UA 65.21)
Mustafa al-Darwish, a young Saudi Arabian man, is at high risk of being executed imminently after his case was referred to the Presidency of State Security and his death sentence…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: INDIGENOUS ACTIVISTS STILL MISSING (Honduras: UA 123.20)
A group of individuals wearing police vests, took Garífuna activists Alberth Centeno Tomas, Suami Mejía García, Gerardo Rochez Cálix, and Milton Martínez Álvarez from their homes on July 18, 2020.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Human Rights Defender in Danger (Haiti: UA 56.21)
Milostène Castin is a defender of the rights of subsistence farmers who have suffered land seizures, displacement, corruption and violent attacks in north-eastern Haiti. Due to his activism, Mr. Castin…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: TORTURED PROTESTERS JAILED UNJUSTLY (Iran: UA 66.21)
Iranian brothers Vahid Afkari and Habib Afkari are being subjected to renewed torture and other ill-treatment in Adelabad prison in Shiraz. Since September 2020, they have been held in windowless…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: HUNDREDS STILL DISAPPEARED FIVE YEARS ON (Iraq: UA 59.21)
At least 643 men and boys from Anbar governorate in central Iraq have been missing for five years since their abduction by the Popular Mobilization Units, a state-affiliated armed group,…