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: New Law Threatens NGOs’ Work (Guatemala: UA 28.19)
On 11 February the Guatemalan Congress enacted Decree 4-2020 (formerly known as Bill 5257). This initiative imposes undue restrictions, controls and sanctions on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). This poses serious risks…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Migrant Children and Asylum-Seekers Still Denied Healthcare (Greece: UA 2.20)
The Greek government issued a new decision on 31 January granting a ‘temporary number for insurance and healthcare’ to asylum seekers, providing access to free public health care and the…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Prisoner of Conscience in Critical Condition (United Arab Emirates: UA 47.19)
The physical and psychological conditions of human rights defender and prisoner of conscience Ahmed Mansoor have significantly deteriorated, following three months of him being on continuous hunger strike to protest…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Four Men at Imminent Risk of Execution (India: UA 5.20)
Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Thakur are at immediate risk of being hanged after they were convicted for the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Early Release for Prisoner of Conscience (Viet Nam: UA 155.18)
Human rights defender Tran Thi Nga has been unexpectedly released after having served three years in prison. Sentenced to nine years imprisonment in 2017 for conducting propaganda against the state”,…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Kurdish Iranian Man at Risk of Execution (Iran: UA 166.18)
Houshmand Alipour, from Iran’s Kurdish minority, is at risk of execution after he was sentenced to death on 29 December 2019 following an unfair trial. Mohammad Ostadghader, also an Iranian…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Nafosat Olloshkurova Released (Uzbekistan: UA 139.19)
Uzbekistani blogger and human rights defender Nafosat Olloshkurova was released from a psychiatric institution on 28 December. She was violently detained by police on 23 September 2019 while monitoring and…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Rio Blanco Land Defenders’ Protection Extended (Honduras: UA 64.19)
Members of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) reviewed and agreed on new protection measures with the Honduran government, including for Rosalina Dominguez, member of…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Prime Minister Rolls Out Plan to Tackle Smog Crisis (Pakistan: UA 153.19)
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan held a press conference on 30 November solely to address the smog crisis that gripped Punjab during 2019. Accepting that smog was a “silent killer”,…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Activists Arrested for Protesting Released (Guinea: UA 165.19)
Five pro-democracy activists, Alseny Farinta Camara, Moussa Sanoh, Boubacar Diallo, Thierno Seydi Ly and Thierno Oumar Barry, were released on 19 December 2019 in Kindia, western Guinea. Charged with participation…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Communities in Boyaja, Choco (western Colombia) Threatened by Armed Groups (Colombia: UA 169.19)
Human Rights Defender Leyner Palacios has been vocal about the presence of these illegal armed groups in the territories of the communities of Bojayá. On December 31, 2019, 300 members…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Kurdish Activist Needs Urgent Medical Care (Iran: UA 176.19)
Detained labor rights activist Bakhtiar Rahimi, from Iran’s Kurdish minority, was arrested on 27 November 2019 in Marivan, Kurdistan province. Bakhtiar Rahimi has serious heart and kidney conditions for which…