Our cases and campaigns help save lives and change the world. Send a letter, sign a petition, or take action in an urgent case.
We urgently need your help to call out the Chechen government on the persecution of people who are, as they put it, of ‘non-traditional orientation’ – and urge immediate action to ensure their safety.
She was strip-searched, held for five hours in a chain-link holding cage, detained for 30 hours total and then charged with rioting and trespassing.
Demand that charges against Jenni be dropped!
For the most vulnerable, the ban is a death sentence.
Tell Congress and demand that Trump abandon this bigoted ban.
Investigative journalist Tomasz Piątek is facing criminal charges for a book he published in June, alleging a link between the Defence Minister and the Russian intelligence services. If found guilty he could face up to 3 years in prison.
On 17 August, four-year-old Carlos and 16-year-old Michael along with their mothers, Lorena and Maribel (all names changed to protect their identities), were ordered released from Berks County Residential Center in Pennsylvania by an immigration judge after nearly 700 days in detention. This follows the release of two other young boys and their mothers held in Berks for over 22 months on 7 and 14 August.
Dissident Iranian cleric Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi has faced continued intimidation and death threats by the Iranian authorities since his release from prison on 4 January. He is under 24 hour surveillance and has effectively been placed under house arrest. He is critically ill, and could be returned to prison at any time.
Huang Qi, founder of “64 Tianwang” (64tianwang.org), who has been detained since November 2016, was ill-treated by police officers in the detention centre and it is unclear if he has received adequate medical treatment.
Iranian prisoner of conscience and human rights defender Arash Sadeghi is critically ill and requires immediate hospitalization outside of prison. However, the authorities are refusing to authorize the transfer, apparently on the orders of the Revolutionary Guards. The denial of access to medical care in these circumstances amounts to torture.
Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoy were convicted and sentenced to death by the Mahiliou Regional Court, in eastern Belarus, on 21 July 2017. Theirs are the second and third death sentences imposed in Belarus in 2017.
Human rights defender and Convenor of Voice for Missing Persons of Sindh, Punhal Sario, has been forcibly disappeared in Sindh Province, southern Pakistan. This is another example in a string of recent enforced disappearances by the security forces in Sindh. His fate and whereabouts remain unknown. He is at grave risk of torture, ill-treatment, and even death.
On 12 August, the Cairo criminal court adjourned Mahmoud Abu Zeid's court hearing 19 August, for the 35th time. Today is the four-year anniversary of Mahmoud Abu Zeid’s arrest. The Egyptian photojournalist, also known as “Shawkan,” has been in prison for four years. He is a prisoner of conscience.
Raúl Isaías Baduel was unexpectedly taken from his cell at Ramo Verde National Military Detention Centre, Caracas, at dawn on 8 August 2017. There has been no information regarding his whereabouts since.
76-year old Crimean Tatar Server Karametov was arrested on 8 August by the de facto authorities in Crimea while engaging in a peaceful protest and sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention on charges of resisting police. He is a prisoner of conscience, with Parkinson’s disease, who must be immediately and unconditionally released.