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: Protect Human Rights Organization at Risk (Colombia: UA 17.21)
On 10 February, a civil society organization received a verified report of an ongoing plan to kill or displace Association for the Integral and Sustainable Development of the Amazonian Pearl…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Prisoner of Conscience Detained Incommunicado (Egypt: UA 15.21)
Following his arrest on 1 February, researcher and master’s student Ahmed Samir Santawy was subjected to enforced disappearance for five days. During this time, security forces beat him and kept…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: 83-Year-Old Detainee Needs Urgent Medical Care (Saudi Arabia: UA 172.19)
The health of 83-year-old Palestinian national detained in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Mohammed al-Khudari, has been deteriorating due to the lack of access to adequate health care, including care for his…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Pastor Steven Tendo Released from Detention (USA: UA 112.20)
Steven Tendo is a 35-year-old pastor and asylum-seeker who fled from torture and other severe human rights violations in Uganda and requested asylum in the USA. He was held by…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: NGO Prisoners of Conscience Conditionally Released (Venezuela: UA 3.21)
On 10 February, prisoners of conscience and staff members from Azul Positivo, a medical and humanitarian NGO in Zulia (Western Venezuela) were conditionally released from detention. Johan León Reyes, Yordy…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Forced Eviction Kills Child; 3,500 Left Homeless (Kenya: UA 16.21)
On 5 February, at 10:30pm, 3,500 residents of Kibos, Kisumu County, Kenya, were brutally evicted by the Kenya Railways Corporation. Armed police used tear gas to force residents out of…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Drop Charges Against Journalist (USA: UA 14.21)
On the night of 31 May 2020, police in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, pepper sprayed, arrested, and detained journalist Andrea Sahouri while she was reporting on a Black…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Charged with Subversion, Torture Details Revealed (China: UA 20.20)
Former human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, who has been detained since 26 December 2019, has for the first time been allowed to meet with his lawyer through two video calls.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Human Rights Defender Denied Civilian Court Trial (Pakistan: UA 159.19)
On 28 January 2021, the Peshawar High Court denied Idris Khattak’s appeal to be tried in a civilian court and confirmed that the hearing will take place in a military…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Trial Delay for Detained Australian-Chinese Writer (China: UA 98.20)
Yang Hengjun was scheduled to stand trial in January 2021. However, the reasons of the delay have not made known to the public, and his trial has been delayed by…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Prisoner of Conscience’s Health at Risk (Iran: UA 12.21)
Prisoner of conscience Hamed Gharehoghlani is suffering from symptoms that precede dangerous epileptic seizures due to the authorities’ persistent refusal to provide him with specialized health care and medication. He…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Ailing Professor Arrested After Cancelation of Bail (Pakistan: UA 148.19)
AILING PROFESSOR ARRESTED AFTER CANCELATION OF BAIL Professor Muhammad Ismail, 66 and an Amnesty Prisoner of Conscience, was arrested on 2 February 2021 after his pre-arrest bail was canceled at…