Defending the Human Rights of Individuals Around the Globe

In countries around the world, people's lives are threatened because of who they are or what they believe. Amnesty International puts protecting individuals at risk of human rights violations at the very heart of our work.

Our campaign for Individuals at Risk (IAR) mobilizes ordinary people to provide hope and transform lives through simple powerful action. We provide rapid response when detainees are tortured and denied basic rights, when human rights defenders face death threats, when people are discriminated against because they are poor. We act to aid specific individuals at risk and pressure governments to address underlying human rights issues.

Defending the Human Rights of Individuals Around the Globe

In countries around the world, people's lives are threatened because of who they are or what they believe. Amnesty International puts protecting individuals at risk of human rights violations at the very heart of our work.

Our campaign for Individuals at Risk (IAR) mobilizes ordinary people to provide hope and transform lives through simple powerful action. We provide rapid response when detainees are tortured and denied basic rights, when human rights defenders face death threats, when people are discriminated against because they are poor. We act to aid specific individuals at risk and pressure governments to address underlying human rights issues.

For more than 45 years, Amnesty International has come to the aid of prisoners of conscience and other individuals at risk of serious human rights violations. Thanks to the actions of Amnesty supporters like you, countless individuals have been freed from prison, saved from torture and protected from death threats. Amnesty's Campaign for Individuals at Risk provides hope and improves lives.

Campaign Goals

  • Win improvements for individuals at risk by:
    • Facilitating grassroots advocacy on a wide range of IAR cases
    • Coordinating intensive activism around Priority Cases and Global Write-a-thon
    • Mobilizing rapid, worldwide response through our Urgent Action Network

    Specific goals are driven by the circumstances of each case. In one case we may seek a prisoner's release, while in another our focus may be on securing justice for previous abuses.

  • Engage more people in IAR activism. More voices joining our call for justice strengthens our message and boosts our capacity to help those who are at risk.
  • Heighten visibility of Amnesty's work for individuals. Increased visibility of IAR cases at the local and national levels increases pressure on governments to act and engages more supporters.
Get Involved
Individuals at Risk Updates
Blog
Three members of the feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot could spend 7 years in prison after a Moscow performance.
Press Release
Amnesty International welcomed a deal to end long-term solitary confinement for 19 prisoners in Israel as a step in the right direction toward respect for human rights. But the organization said Isra...
Victory

Seventy-year-old Alabama death row prisoner Thomas Arthur has received a stay of execution from a federal court. He had been scheduled to be executed on the evening of 29 March for a murder committ...

Report

New Amnesty report finds conditions in Arizona's maximum security prisons fall below international standards for humane treatment.

Individuals at Risk Issues