Urgent Action Network blog

On Thursday 19 November Filep Karma finally walked free after spending 10 years in prison for waving a flag in Indonesia. Of course, Filep should never have spent any time in prison but Amnesty welcomes his early release. Our actions...

UPDATE 9 November 2015: Ali Aarrass suspended his hunger strike last week after 72 days. After visiting him last week, his family said that he was very weak, in pain and had lost a huge amount of weight. They feared for his life, so he...

Back in June a US Judge ruled that Albert Woodfox should be immediately released from prison , after his conviction of killing a prison guard was overturned for a third time. Albert, now 68, has spent the last four decades in solitary...

A tube of expired toothpaste. Caitlyn Jenner’s infamous Vanity Fair magazine cover. Cosmopolitan magazine. Malala Yusafsai’s autobiography. The US Senate Report on Torture. What do all of these things have in common? They have all been...

Football is, for some, an obsession. In the UK, it’s a sport that gets lots of people’s emotions going and in the office, now that the football season has begun, conversations about tactics and scorelines will start up once again too...

Today is day 1,147. Raif Badawi has been detained in Saudi Arabia for over three years now – and all for blogging, for encouraging debate, and exercising his right to free speech. His sentence upheld last month, Raif continues to serve...

‘I am allowed a brief moment out of my 6x9 feet world for one hour of exercise. This has been my routine for years. The pain and suffering goes beyond description.’ Albert Woodfox ‘Do we really think it makes sense to lock people alone...

"We are waiting for the day when your flight will land in Montreal. You will see me waiting for you and crying. I won't stop until you have taken me in your arms and dried my tears." Doudi, Raif Badawi’s son Ten-year-old Doudi and his...

Okunishi Masaru is Japan’s longest serving death row inmate. This week marks 43 years since Japan's Supreme Court confirmed Okunishi's death sentence, two years after he was sent to death row. Okunishi has spent over half his life...

Update 12 June: Raif not flogged - for now Raif wasn't flogged this morning - the authorities gave no explanation to the reason behind this. While it's a relief that he was not lashed, the threat of flogging continues each and every...

Update, 9 June: Kyiv Pride went ahead on Saturday with around 250 people marching in the Ukrainian capital. Unfortunately events were marred by homophobic violence that left 10 marchers and 5 police officers injured, despite over 1500...

Every now and then there comes along a case that seems too tragic to comprehend- where cruelty from one individual to another is compounded and amplified by a callous governmental response. That is how I feel about the case of a 10...

Tell Raif Badawi you have not forgotten him 50 days ago, a 29-year-old man serving a ten-year prison sentence in Saudi Arabia was taken from his cell and driven to a square in Jeddah in a district populated with government buildings...

Update, 10 March: After thousands of you around the world took action in February, it's now clear Saman's scheduled execution never took place on 19 February. For several days after Saman's scheduled execution date, no information came...

Update: 11am, Friday 9 January Raif Badawi was publicly lashed 50 times after Friday prayers today. Handcuffed and shackled, Raif was led to a square in front of the al-Jafali mosque in Jeddah, watched by a crowd. He was lashed on his...

It is not all doom and gloom. Because of you people have been freed, lives have been saved and justice has been done. Urgent Actions are at the heart of what we do and it is great when we can see what a difference they can make...

How does it feel when someone you actually know is put in prison? Perhaps as a campaigner for justice for individuals, groups and communities it shouldn’t feel different – after all, their position is just as bad – but somehow knowing...

LGBTI Pride season in the UK is underway, and we’re getting ready for London Pride. We are putting the finishing touches on our float, and getting ready to put on the feather boas. Yet while we celebrate our achievements in the UK...

I am Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR). I have just been released from prison after serving a two-year sentence for my peaceful and legitimate...

Amnesty has a long history of campaigning for the eradication of torture worldwide – so much so that we won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. Since Amnesty’s creation, we’ve worked on behalf of individuals who are victims of torture, or...