Changing lives and policies
We free people from prison who are being held unjustly because of who they are or what they believe. We change laws to protect millions of people’s human rights. We transform societies to be more fair, free, and just.

Featured Victory
Marilin* (31) and Yunior* (11), have been released! Before the family’s release this week, Marilin faced an anniversary no parent would want: one year of lockup with her child simply for seeking safety here in the United States.
Marilin and Yunior were featured in our family detention campaign surge – several weeks of sustained actions, from grassroots activism to billboards, to drive attention to the dozens of families who are invisible behind detention walls in Pennsylvania and Texas. We want them and the government to know they’re not forgotten, and that we are working to free them all.
Thank you all for your continuing support and activism on these case campaigns. Our collective action shines a bright light on these families and the unlawful detention of them and so many more people detained in immigration facilities, and helps push the needle for their release.
Browse Victories
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Human Rights Defender Transferred to Brazil (Mozambique: UA 132.20)
Following a long defamatory and intimidatory campaign against Bishop Lisboa and his human rights work in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, the Pope Francis announced the transfer of Bishop Lisboa to Brazil…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Four of Five Families Freed from Detention (USA: UA 116.20)
Over the course of 2020, Amnesty International campaigned to free five families from immigration detention in the USA, with the broader call for all detained families to be freed. Of…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Deportation of Chechen Man Suspended (France: UA 24.21)
A.S., a Chechen man who was held in immigration detention in France facing imminent deportation to Russia, was released on 20 February. His deportation to Russia, where he would be…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Peaceful Protester Released After Sixteen Months (Russian Federation: UA 82.20)
Prisoner of conscience Konstantin Kotov, who was convicted for “repeated violations of regulations of public assemblies”, left prison on 16 December after having spent one year and four months behind…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Pastor Steven Tendo Released from Detention (USA: UA 112.20)
Steven Tendo is a 35-year-old pastor and asylum-seeker who fled from torture and other severe human rights violations in Uganda and requested asylum in the USA. He was held by…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Guinean Pro-Democracy Activist Is Free (Guinea: UA 83.20)
Saïkou Yaya Diallo, the legal coordinator of the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), was freed from Conakry prison on 11 December 2020 after having served seven…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Opposition Members Released (Togo: UA 171.20)
Political activists Brigitte Kafui Adjamagbo and Gérard Yaovi Djossou were released from detention on 17 December 2020 and are now under judicial supervision. At the end of November 2020, they…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Indigenous Land Defender Receives Protection (Paraguay: UA 160.20)
In November, Paraguayan authorities opened an investigation and provided protection to Bernarda Pesoa, leader of an indigenous Qom community, after she was attacked in late October. We continue to monitor…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Human Rights Defenders Released (Egypt: UA 166.20)
On 3 December 2020, Gasser Abdel Razek, Karim Ennarah and Mohamed Basheer, directors at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), were released and are now safely home with their…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Activist Returned to Pakistan and Freed (Bahrain: UA 11.20)
On 8 March 2020, the Bahrain authorities forcefully returned Geelaman Pashteen a Pashtun human rights activist and supporter of Pakistan’s Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) to Pakistan. Geelaman Pashteen was later…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Yemeni Teenager “Not Guilty” Over Speech Charges (Jordan: UA 15.20)
On 28 July 2020, the Jordanian criminal court deemed Tujan al-Bukhaiti, “not guilty” over charges of “blasphemy” and “insulting religious feelings” in relation to her social media posts. Tujan had…
Victory
Urgent Action Victory! Bill Restricting Access to Safe Abortion Rejected (Slovakia: UA 128.20)
On 20 October, the Slovak Parliament rejected a bill that would have further obstructed access to safe abortion care, violating the human rights of women and girls, and endangering the…