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: FULLY OPEN GALATASARAY SQUARE (Turkey 101.23)
Share: On This Page On November 11, after over five years of being banned, 10 representatives of Saturday Mothers/People, a group of relatives of victims of enforced disappearances and other…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER IMPRISONED AND MADE TO PAY, FOR PEACEFUL PROTEST (Argentina 74.23)
Alberto Nallar is a human rights lawyer who took an active role during the protests in Jujuy province that began on June 15. He is being criminalized and was deprived…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: CLIMATE DISPLACED COMMUNITY NEEDS URGENT RELOCATION (Mexico 108.23)
Eighty-four people from the “El Bosque” community, in southern Mexico, were evacuated to Frontera village (12 km far from El Bosque) on November 1, 2023, due to sea level rise…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: REFUGEES IN PERU FACE IMPOSSIBLE DEADLINE (Peru 106.23)
As of November 10, 2023, Venezuelan nationals in Peru will no longer be able to apply for temporary protection. This status is essential for refugees to have a regular migratory…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: TORTURED IRANIAN KURDISH MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH (Iran: 107.23)
Iranian Kurdish man Reza (Gholamreza) Rasaei is at risk of execution in relation to the September to December 2022 nationwide protests in Iran. Following a grossly unfair trial, on October…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: RIGHTS LAWYER IMPRISONED FOR PEACEFUL PROTEST (Thailand: 105.23)
Human rights defender and pro-democracy activist Anon Nampa has received two prison sentences for peacefully exercising his rights and faces multiple charges that could lead to decades’ imprisonment. He is…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: TRUTH AND JUSTICE FOR DISAPPEARED ACTIVIST (Iraq: 104.23)
On September 19, 2020, a group of armed men abducted Sajjad al-Iraqi, a prominent protester and activist involved in the 2019 Tishreen [October] protest. More than three years after his…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER CONVICTED FOR PROTESTING (Argentina 74.23)
Alberto Nallar is a human rights lawyer who took an active role during the protests in Jujuy Province that began on June 15. He is being criminalized and was deprived…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: TWO YOUNG MEN AT IMMINENT RISK OF EXECUTION (Saudi Arabia: 103.23)
Abdullah al-Derazi and Jalal Labbad are at risk of imminent execution after Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court secretly upheld their death sentences in secret, without notifying their families or lawyers. Both…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: HEALTH RISK FOR DETAINED ANTI-TORTURE T-SHIRT PROTESTER (Egypt 90.23)
Mahmoud Hussein, a protester who had already spent two years in arbitrary pretrial detention for wearing an anti-torture T-shirt, was re-arrested on August 30. After his release on bail in…
Urgent Action
URGENT ACTION: BAHRAINI PRISONER STILL ON FASTING PROTEST (Bahrain 100.22)
Bahraini-Danish human rights defender and prisoner of conscience Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja reinstated his fasting protest on September 21, 2023, after prison authorities reneged on their promises including to transport him and…
Urgent Action
11 BAHA’IS DISAPPEARED FOR MORE THAN 100 DAYS (YEMEN 60.23)
On May 25, armed Huthi forces stormed a peaceful gathering of Baha’is in Sana’a, Yemen. They detained and forcibly disappeared 17 individuals including five women and human rights and humanitarian…