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 Victory! Activist Released, Appeal Against Conviction Ongoing (Indonesia: UA 34.18)
Environmental activist Heri Budiawan, known as Budi Pego, was released from prison on 1 July 2018. Sentenced to 10 months behind bars for “crimes against the state security” on 24…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Road to Be Built Over Individual and Mass Graves (Iran: UA 140.18)
The families of political dissidents who were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially killed in Ahvaz, southern Iran, in the 1980s are suffering untold mental anguish and distress as the authorities are…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! – Russian Court Whistleblower Released (Russian Federation: UA 228.17)
On 18 July, St Petersburg’s Kalininsky District Court sentenced former court secretary and whistleblower Aleksandr Eivazov to one year and ten months in an open penal colony for “interfering with…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Iranian in Belarus at Risk of Imminent Deportation (Belarus: UA 135.18)
Iranian citizen Mehrdad Jamshidian, who suffers from acute ill-health, was detained on 14 June in Belarus. He is at imminent risk of deportation to Iran, where he may be subjected…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Ukrainian Film Director Released (Russian Federation: UA 170.15)
Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and dozens of other detainees were released as a part of prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Texas Conducts its Eighth Execution of 2018 (USA: UA 130.18)
Share: On This Page We have received updated information regarding this case and require no further action from the Urgent Action Network. Thank you to all those who sent appeals.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! – Ohio Governor Commutes Death Sentence (USA: UA 123.18)
On 20 July, the Governor of Ohio commuted the death sentence of Raymond Tibbetts, who was scheduled for execution on 17 October. In so doing, the governor rejected the parole…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: First Ohio Execution in 10 Months Goes Ahead (USA: 116.18)
We have received updated information regarding this case and require no further action from the Urgent Action Network. Thank you to all those who sent appeals. For more information about…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Risk of Torture for Man Extradited to Russia (Russian Federation: UA 41.18)
Aslan Yandiev is at imminent risk of extradition to Russia. The extradition date has been set for 17 July 2018. If extradited to Russia, Aslan Yandiev would be at risk…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Gravely Ill Detainee Sentenced to Seven Years in Jail (Moldova: UA 111.18)
We have received updated information regarding this case and require no further action from the Urgent Action Network. Thank you to all those who sent appeals. For more information about…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Six More Hanged in Unprecedented Execution Spree (Japan: UA 213.16)
We have received updated information regarding this case and require no further action from the Urgent Action Network. Thank you to all those who sent appeals. For more information about…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Human Rights Defender Marks One Year in Prison (Burundi: 32.18)
Human rights defender and prisoner of conscience Germain Rukuki was arrested one year ago on 13 July 2017. He was sentenced to 32 years in prison on 26 April 2018.…