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.
The reason we could resist the ban and move forward was the international support and solidarity by Amnesty International activists around the world. We could not have gone further without your support.
I am very grateful for all the support I received while I was in prison. Life in prison was very difficult and I was treated badly, but the support of those who believed in me made me strong.
My case once again showed how important solidarity and attention are in protecting the freedom of speech and human rights. I admire your noble work and boundless courage, dear activists.
Browse Urgent Actions
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: JOURNALIST AND POET FACES CHARGES AFTER ABDUCTION (Pakistan 46.24)
Share: On This Page On May 15, 2024, Ahmad Farhad, a Kashmiri journalist and poet, outspoken critic of enforced disappearances…
July 9, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: ALABAMA’S THIRD EXECUTION OF 2024 IMMINENT (USA 61.24)
Keith Gavin is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on July 18, 2024. He was convicted in 1999 of a…
July 9, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: JOURNALIST SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN JAIL (Yemen 4.24)
On May 28, 2024, the Aden-based Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) sentenced journalist, Ahmad Maher, to four years in prison following…
July 8, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: URGE CLEMENCY FOR NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVIST (USA 16.19)
Native American activist, Leonard Peltier, has been imprisoned in the USA for nearly 50 years, some of which was spent…
July 8, 2024
Urgent Action
Outcome Urgent Action: CLEMENCY DENIED, TEXAS EXECUTES AGAIN (USA 52.24)
On June 24, 2024, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against clemency, by seven votes to nil. No…
June 28, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: PALESTINIAN JOURNALISTS FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED (IOPT 119.23)
Nidal al-Waheidi and Haitham Abdelwahed are journalists from the occupied Gaza Strip. Both were detained by Israeli forces on October…
June 28, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: 33 PEOPLE CRIMINALIZED FOR PROTESTING IN ARGENTINA (Argentina 57.24)
A violent police operation during protests on June 12 resulted in 33 people being arbitrarily detained and charged with several…
June 28, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: SUDANESE IN EGYPT RISK DETENTION AND DEPORTATION (Egypt 56.24)
Since September 2023, the Egyptian authorities have carried out mass arrests of Sudanese refugees for entering or remaining in the…
June 28, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: FREE FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED PALESTINIAN SURGEON (IOPT 53.24)
On March 24, 2024, Palestinian Khaled Al Serr was detained by the Israeli military from Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis…
June 17, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: JOURNALIST AT RISK (Mexico 17.24)
Mexican journalist, Alberto Amaro, reported that officers of the investigative police of the Tlaxcala Attorney General’s Office threatened him with…
June 17, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: BLOGGER ARBITRARILY DETAINED DESPITE BAIL (Bangladesh 54.24)
Selim Khan is an atheist blogger from Bangladesh. He was part of a private Facebook group for like-minded atheists where…
June 13, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: ACTIVIST SUBJECTED TO TORTURE OR OTHER ILLTREATMENT FOR PROTESTING (Georgia 51.24)
Activist, Davit Katsarava, was detained for protesting peacefully on May 14. Police subjected him to beating, strangulation, and other degrading…
June 13, 2024