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 RELEASED AFTER THREE YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT (Outcome for Iraq 28.21)
NO FURTHER ACTION IS REQUESTED. MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO SENT APPEALS. On February 17, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq…
March 12, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: STOP WITHHOLDING DETAINEES’ MEDICAL CARE (Venezuela Third UA 96.23)
Share: On This Page On February 19, 2024, Juan Carlos Marrufo was unexpectedly transferred to Venezuelan prison Rodeo I, almost…
March 12, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: INVESTIGATE THREATS AND ATTACKS AGAINST DEFENDERS (Colombia Second UA 12.24)
On February 13, a grenade was thrown inside the home of a member of CREDHOS, hurting members of her family.…
March 12, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: PROMINENT ACTIVIST DENIED CONSULAR VISIT (Egypt Fifteenth UA 132.19)
Prominent Egyptian-British activist, Alaa Abdel Fattah, has spent 52 months arbitrarily detained simply for exercising his human rights. On December…
March 12, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: OPPOSITION FIGURE JUDICIALLY HARASSED (Tunisia Second UA 114.23)
Arbitrarily detained opposition figure, Abir Moussi, is facing criminal investigation for the legitimate exercise of her rights to freedom of…
March 12, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: GEORGIA SETS FIRST EXECUTION IN FOUR YEARS (USA 22.24)
Willie Pye is scheduled to be executed in Georgia on March 20, 2024. Now 58, he was sentenced to death…
March 8, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: VENEZUELAN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER AND HER FAMILY ARRESTED (Venezuela 13.24)
RocÃo San Miguel, a well-known human rights defender, was arbitrarily detained on February 9, 2024, at the airport in Caracas,…
March 5, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: SAUDI WOMAN IMPRISONED FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS TWEETS (Saudi Arabia 14.24)
On November 16, 2022, Saudi authorities arrested 29-year-old Manahel al-Otaibi. She has been forcibly disappeared since November 2023. She was…
March 5, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: JOURNALIST THREATENED AND HARASSED (Malawi 11.24)
Journalist Gregory Gondwe has gone into hiding following his investigative report on the Malawi Defense Force’s dealings with a businessman…
March 5, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: SHAM MASS TRIAL OF 84 EMIRATI MEN ONGOING (UAE Second UA 120.23)
The unfair mass trial of 84 Emirati men, including human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience Ahmed Mansoor, Mohammed al-Roken,…
March 5, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: PERSECUTION OF IMPRISONED UKRAINIAN CONTINUES (Russia Fourth UA 64.22)
Ukrainian citizen, Oleksandr Marchenko, imprisoned in Russia on fabricated charges of espionage, continues to be harassed and ill-treated in custody.…
March 5, 2024
Urgent Action
Urgent Action: ISRAEL MUST ENSURE AID PROVISIONS REACH GAZA (IOPT 15.24)
On January 26, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Palestinian civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip face a…
March 5, 2024