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: Tortured Detainee Denied Medical Care (Belarus: UA 173.20)
Viachaslau Rahashchuk is a taxi driver from the Belarusian city of Pinsk who was arbitrarily detained in 10 August and remains behind bars. He is in need of urgent medical…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Tortured Sufi Prisoner Must be Released (Iran: UA 172.20)
Behnam Mahjoubi, from Iran’s persecuted Gonabadi Dervish religious minority, is being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including through the denial of specialist medical care. He is a prisoner of…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Crimean Tatar Rights Defender Sentenced (Russian Federation: UA 150.19)
Server Mustafayev, a Crimean Tatar human rights defender, was sentenced by a Russian military court on 16 September to fourteen years in a strict regime penal colony. Server Mustafayev must…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Rohingya Refugees Detained on Remote Island (Bangladesh: UA 169.20)
The Bangladeshi authorities relocated more than 1,600 Rohingya refugees to Bhashan Char, a remote island at the Bay of Bengal, on 4 December 2020. Despite the fact that it has…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Activist Returned to Pakistan and Freed (Bahrain: UA 11.20)
On 8 March 2020, the Bahrain authorities forcefully returned Geelaman Pashteen a Pashtun human rights activist and supporter of Pakistan’s Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) to Pakistan. Geelaman Pashteen was later…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Jailed Opposition Leader in Critical Condition (Bahrain: UA 139.11)
Prisoner of conscience, Hassan Mshaima, one of 11 jailed Bahraini opposition leaders, continues to be denied adequate healthcare in detention. Over the past two months he was admitted to the…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Detained Rights Lawyer In Critical Health Condition (Egypt: UA 190.18)
On 30 November 2020, the family of 63-year-old human rights lawyer Hoda Abdelmoniem learned that she was hospitalized after suffering from suspected kidney failure and severe pain. Her relatives last…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Former Police Investigator Jailed with Covid-19 (Sri Lanka: UA 168.20)
Shani Abeysekara, the former director of the Sri Lankan Criminal Investigations Department (CID) tested positive for COVID-19 on 24 November 2020. According to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka,…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Children’s Hospice at Risk, Director Targeted (Belarus: UA 167.20)
Volha Vialichka, the director of the Belarusian Hrodna children’s hospice, is being targeted by the authorities following her role as an independent observer during the disputed August presidential elections in…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Blogger Detained in Psychiatric Hospital (Kazakhstan: UA 165.20)
Blogger and journalist, Aigul Utepova, was forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital in Nursultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, on 23 November. She has been under house arrest since 17 September…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Yemeni Teenager “Not Guilty” Over Speech Charges (Jordan: UA 15.20)
On 28 July 2020, the Jordanian criminal court deemed Tujan al-Bukhaiti, “not guilty” over charges of “blasphemy” and “insulting religious feelings” in relation to her social media posts. Tujan had…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Bill Restricting Access to Safe Abortion Rejected (Slovakia: UA 128.20)
On 20 October, the Slovak Parliament rejected a bill that would have further obstructed access to safe abortion care, violating the human rights of women and girls, and endangering the…