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: Fate and Whereabouts of Policeman Unknown (Belarus: UA 133.18)
Former Chechen policeman Artur Aydamirov, 34, disappeared on 8 June in Brest, Belarus, after learning in early 2018 that he is required to perform military service in Syria. He decided…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Release Critically Ill Human Rights Defender (Turkmenistan: UA 97.14)
Mansur Mingelov, sentenced to 22 years imprisonment in an unfair trial in retaliation for complaints about torture in police detention, is critically ill with tuberculosis contracted in prison. He must…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Politician Faces 7 Trumped Up Criminal Charges (Maldives: UA 125.18)
Faris Maumoon, an opposition politician in the Maldives, was sentenced to four months and 24 days in prison for identity fraud, and is facing five other politically motivated criminal charges.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! – Environmentalist Conditionally Released (Cuba 109.18)
Prisoner of conscience and environmental activist, Dr. Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, was sentenced in Cuba to one-year imprisonment for contempt. On 3 July he was released with conditions.
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Detained Religious Teacher Faces Death Penalty (Sudan: UA 70.18)
Matar Younis Ali Hussein, a religious teacher who has a visual disability, has been formally charged with three offences under the 1991 Penal Code. Two of the offences put him…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! Liu Xia Freed, On Her Way to Berlin (China: UA 270.17)
Liu Xia was finally allowed to leave China for Germany on 10 July 2018, after almost eight years of illegal house arrest. Her release came three days before the first…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Health Concerns for Detained Sudanese Activist (Sudan: UA 127.18)
The family of Sudanese activist Husham Ali Mohamed Ali has received disturbing information that he has been injured while in detention. The Sudanese National Intelligence Service (NISS) arrested him upon…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Seven People Killed in Cauca (Colombia: UA 128.18)
Seven bodies, all male, were found piled on a road of the municipality of Argelia, in the southwest region of Cauca, Colombia. The bodies are being identified by authorities as…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Imprisoned Journalist Goes on Hunger Strike (Ukraine: UA 160.17)
Stanislav Aseev, a Ukrainian freelance journalist who the pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk have kept in detention on spurious charges since June 2017, has declared a hunger strike. The de facto…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Victory! – Displaced Women, Children Receive Food Supply (Nigeria: UA 102.18)
Approximately 230 internally displaced women (known as the Knifar movement) and their children who had previously been denied access to food are now able to access food supplies.
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: Protesters Being Held in Administrative Detention (India: UA 124.18)
Five protesters have been held under administrative detention since 10 June after participating in protests demanding the closure of a copper plant in southern India. Under the repressive National Security…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action Update: Activist Made to Sign False Written Statement (India: UA 74.18)
Human rights defender Pavitri Manjhi says that on 13 June 2018, a police officer visited her home in Benghari village, Chhattisgarh state and compelled her to sign a false written…