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: Spanish National Forcibly Disappeared by Russia (Russia 69.23)
Share: On This Page Russian authorities have forcibly disappeared Mariano García Calatayud, a 75-year-old Spanish volunteer humanitarian worker whom their forces had abducted from occupied Kherson, in Ukraine, in 2022.…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: JURY VOTED FOR LIFE, STATE RESETS EXECUTION (USA 116.23)
Kenneth Smith is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on January 25, 2024. His jury voted for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, but the judge imposed a death…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: JAILED ACADEMIC’S HEALTH DETERIORATES (Azerbaijan 77.23)
Gubad Ibadoghlu is a renowned political economist and civil activist. On July 23, 2023, the Azerbaijani authorities detained him on fabricated charges of the production, acquisition, or sale of counterfeit…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: CLIMATE DISPLACED PEOPLE NEED A HOME URGENTLY (Mexico 108.23)
On November 13, 69 people from “El Bosque” community (Tabasco) were forced to leave a temporary shelter in Frontera Village due to inhumane conditions and treatments. They were placed there…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: UN EXPERTS ALARMED OVER IMPUNITY IN CHILE (Chile 91.23)
On November 27, 2023, UN special rapporteurs on peaceful assembly and association and on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions publicly called on Chilean authorities to “advance the prosecution and sanction…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: UNJUSTLY HELD STUDENT DENIED PROSTHETIC LEG (Egypt 110.23)
Oqba Hashad has been arbitrarily detained without trial for over four years and six months solely for his brother’s human rights activism. Security forces subjected him to enforced disappearance for…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: VENEZUELAN DETAINEES’ LIFE AT RISK (Venezuela 96.23)
Emirlendris Benítez is a 42-year-old mother and tradeswoman who was arbitrarily detained in August 2018 and subjected to torture. Guillermo Zárraga is a 59-year-old engineer and former oil industry unionist…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: ARTIST SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON (Russia 36.22)
On November 16, 2023 Aleksandra Skochilenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for “disseminating knowingly false information about the Russian Armed Forces”. In March 2022, Aleksandra Skochilenko had replaced…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: IMPRISONED NURSE MAY FULLY LOSE HEARING (Russia 28.23)
Irina Danilovich, a nurse and human rights activist, was abducted by security officers in Russian-occupied Crimea in April 2022 and sentenced to seven years imprisonment following an unfair trial. She…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: JAILED NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE’S HEALTH AT RISK (Iran 105.15)
Iranian authorities have been subjecting arbitrarily detained human rights defender and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Narges Mohammadi to torture and other ill treatment by deliberately denying or severely delaying…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: STOP DEPORTING AFGHAN REFUGEES (Pakistan 109.23)
On October 3, 2023, the Pakistani government announced its decision to deport unregistered Afghan refugees back to Afghanistan by November 1. Since November, authorities have deported Afghans and increased the…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: REFUGEES IN PERU RISK MASS EXPULSIONS (Peru 106.23)
Venezuelan nationals in Peru no longer can apply for temporary protection, which allowed refugees to have a regular migratory status. On November 14, the Peruvian government issued the legislative decree…