Urgent Action Network (NSW)

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Urgent Actions form the basis of a letter writing campaign, which can rapidly produce an internationally coordinated mass appeal (via post, fax and email), in order to prevent serious violations of human rights.

The first Urgent Action was created on 19 March 1973, following the arrest of Professor Luiz Rossi, who was a professor of economics at the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil. The letters flooded in and the Professor was released. Since then the Urgent Action Network has gone from strength to strength.

Although you may be writing from Australia, you will be part of a global network consisting of tens of thousands of individuals around the world who have agreed to give up some of their time to write and send these appeals.

How can you get involved?

Being a letter writing network, we don’t have meetings as such. All you need is a pen and paper or computer and a will to help those less fortunate than yourself. If you would like to join us just send an email or phone, see contacts on the right hand side of this page, mentioning:

your full name and postal address (a PO box is fine) and,
your preference for receiving Urgent Actions, eg. by post, or email (preferred) together with the frequency, eg. weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

We will then send you Urgent Actions according to your above preferences. Some may be original and some may be a continuation of a previous appeal, as some cases can continue for a long time. However, a good background is always included to help you understand the case.

When a conclusion has been reached, a “Stop Action” is released, and we distribute these every two months in the form of a newsletter, so that you can find out what finally happened to your case. See the links below, for the most recent newsletters.

Why not take a look at our letter writing guide, containing hints and examples of how to address and compose effective appeals, and the International Amnesty library site, from where you can search for past and current Urgent Actions and other publications.