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 Update: Uyghur Academic Reappears on State Broadcast (China: UA 14.20)
Held incommunicado for three years, prominent Uyghur historian and publisher Iminjan Seydin suddenly reappeared in a video published by state-run English newspaper China Daily on 4 May 2020. In what…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Human Rights Defender Detained and Tortured (Egypt: UA 16.20)
Human rights defender Patrick Zaki George, who suffers from asthma, is at particular risk if exposed to COVID-19 in Tora Investigation Prison. On 5 May 2020, Supreme State Security prosecutors…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Activist Arrested and Detained (Nigeria: UA 73.20)
On 28 April, Mubarak Bala, a prominent Nigerian humanist, was arrested by police officers at his home in Kaduna, north-western Nigeria, and accused of blasphemy after he wrote a post…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Evicted Residents Vulnerable to Covid-19 (Kenya: UA 75.20)
Despite obtaining interim orders from the Environment and Lands Court halting the evictions, more than 7,000 households of Kariobangi Sewerage Farmers Slum, Korogocho Market, Kisumu Ndogo and Nyayo Village, Nairobi,…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Rakhine Journalist Remains in Hiding (Myanmar: UA 87.19)
Aung Marm Oo, an ethnic Rakhine Editor-in-chief of a news agency based in Rakhine State, has been in hiding for more than a year after charges were filed against him…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Women Human Rights Defenders Remain on Trial (Saudi Arabia: UA 105.18)
Eight of the eleven activists have been temporarily released but remain on trial for their human rights activism. Activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Nouf Abdulaziz and Maya’a al-Zahrani remain in detention. Despite…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Supporters of Former Child Soldier Released Early (Myanmar: UA 30.20)
Nay Zar Tun, Khin Cho Naing, and Myint Zaw have been released from prison early due to sentence reductions. Sentenced to between 12 and 18 months, they were in prison…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Editor Faces Detention After Disappearance (Bangladesh: UA 34.20)
Fifty-three days after he was subject to a suspected enforced disappearance, Bangladeshi photographer and newspaper editor Shafiqul Islam Kajol has been produced by the authorities and sent to indefinite pre-trial…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Ill-Treated Prisoner Risks Total Paralysis (Iran: UA 72.20)
Hossein Sepanta, a critically ill prisoner in Adelabad prison in Shiraz, Fars province, is suffering from a disorder in his spinal cord, causing him severe pain, numbness, loss of coordination,…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Protesters Arrested for Opposing Bigoted Law (India: UA 49.20)
Meeran Haider, Shifa-Ur-Rehman and Safoora Zargar (who is three months pregnant) have been arrested for peacefully protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a law that legitimizes discrimination on the basis…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Concerns Mount for Detained Lawyer (Sri Lanka: UA 62.20)
Hejaaz Hizbullah, a prominent Sri Lankan lawyer, was arrested on 14 April 2020 and has since been detained without charge or access to a lawyer. His family believes he has…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Prisoner of Conscience at Risk of COVID-19 (Cuba: UA 122.19)
63-year-old independent journalist Roberto Quiñones Haces, imprisoned on 11 September 2019 for “resistance” and “disobedience”, remains in the Provincial Prison of Guantánamo in concerning unsanitary conditions, according to reports. His…