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: EDUCATION ACTIVIST ARBITRARILY DETAINED (Afghanistan 9.24)
Share: On This Page Ahmad Fahim Azimi and Seddiqullah Afghan, activists working with the education organization, Fekre Behtar, were arbitrarily arrested at their office in Karta Char, Kabul, the capital…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: DROP CHARGES AND RELEASE GUBAD IBADOGHLU (Azerbaijan 77.23)
On April 22, 2024, after 274 days in detention, prominent Azerbaijani economist and political activist, Gubad Ibadoghlu, was moved to house arrest. The decision to transfer him to house arrest…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: POLITICAL ACTIVIST ON HUNGER STRIKE (Serbia 41.24)
Since June 2021, Ecevit Piroğlu, a political activist from Türkiye, has been held unlawfully and arbitrarily in an immigration detention center in Serbia potentially facing deportation to Türkiye, despite a…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: RELEASE ARRESTED JOURNALISTS (Azerbaijan 31.24)
At least fourteen journalists have been arrested in Azerbaijan on apparent fabricated charges in retaliation for their critical reporting. Several of them have reportedly been subjected to ill-treatment. They should…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: POLITICAL ACTIVIST FACING TRIAL BEFORE MILITARY COURT FOR FACEBOOK POST (Jordan 26.24)
On December 21, 2023, the Jordanian authorities arrested Ayman Sanduka, political activist and mathematics professor, in relation to a Facebook post addressed to the King in October 2023 where he…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: EX-MINISTER TO BE TRIED ON BOGUS CHARGES (Tunisia 2.22)
On April 16, 2024, the Criminal Chamber of the Tunis Court of Cassation confirmed the indictment of ex-justice minister and senior Ennahdha leader Noureddine Bhiri who will now face trial…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: WOMEN AND GIRLS FACING VIOLENT CRACKDOWN (Iran 39.24)
Iranian authorities are waging a “War on Women” to punish defiance of forced veiling in the wake of the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising. Since April, security forces have intensified their…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: PROTECTION WITHOUT CONDITIONS NEEDED FOR CHILD CLIMATE ACTIVISTS (Ecuador 18.24)
Two months after the 14-year-old climate activist, Leonela Moncayo, and her family suffered an explosion outside of their home, the authorities have not effectively investigated what happened and are conditioning…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: MANAHEL AL-OTAIBI SENTENCED TO 11 YEARS IN (Saudi Arabia 14.24)
On January 9, 2024, Saudi Arabia’s infamous Specialized Criminal Court sentenced Manahel al-Otaibi, a 29-year-old fitness instructor and women’s rights activist, to 11 years in prison for “terrorist offenses” in…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: DETAINEES STILL AT RISK (Ecuador 36.24)
Since at least April 24, 2024, prisons authorities halted the provision of food and medication for detainees in five of the major prisons in Ecuador. On May 2, 2024, a…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: PROTEST-RELATED EXECUTION IMMINENT FOR TORTURED MAN (Iran 107.23)
Kurdish man, Reza Rasaei, from the Yaresan religious minority, is at imminent risk of execution in relation to the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising. He has exhausted all legal avenues and…
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: UNION LEADER SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON (Myanmar 38.24)
Thet Hnin Aung, a prominent trade union leader, was sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor following a secret trial and after five months of being forcibly disappeared.…