Update - 28 May: Faced by the continuing failure of the authorities to provide Beatriz with the treatment she so urgently needs, staff at the Citizens' Group for the Decriminalisation of Abortion (Agrupación Ciudadana por la...

Update, 17 May: We've heard that we were unsuccessful in persauding the Indonesian government, and the 3 men were exeucted late yesterday. Despite this awful news, we'll keep campaigning for Indonesia to step back from the death...

We’ve had a busy first few months of 2013, including our celebrations of the 40 year anniversary of the first ever Urgent Action being issued at Amnesty. We have also sent out over 100 Urgent Action cases already this year, which is a...

Thank you for your messages - we have passed these on to our research team in South Africa who will be using them this Wednesday at an anniversary event. We've now closed comments on the blog as we won't be able to send any new...

It’s hard to believe that it’s forty years since I issued Amnesty’s first ‘Urgent Action’. It was for Professor Luis Basilio Rossi, labour lawyer, academic and political activist at the University of Sao Paulo, who “disappeared” after...

It’s 40 years today since we issued the first ever Urgent Action, on behalf of Brazilian Labour Rights activist Professor Luiz Basilio Rossi, detained and tortured by the military junta all because of his political activism. Like many...

Update, 13th March We have received news that tragically, the seven men were executed this morning by firing squad in Saudi Arabia. People close to the men reported that seven mounds of earth had appeared in a public square in Abha...

Mao Hengfeng, a human rights defender in China, was sentenced to ‘Re-education Through Labour’ on 30 October 2012. It was the latest in a series of detentions dating back to 2004 because of her work standing up for human rights. The...

Today, our Director Kate Allen took a trip to the US Embassy in London. She was there to hand over more than 20,000 signatures on our petition to Obama calling for the return of Shaker Aamer, the 44-year-old former UK resident who was...

Update, 15 Feb . On 14 February, 181 WOZA members were arrested at a peaceful Valentine's Day demonstration in Bulawayo. The WOZA members were calling on police to respond to complaints about police beatings and brutality. The day...

Li Dehuai is the brother of Li Yan, who is on death row in China. After years of violent abuse from her husband, she finally snapped in November 2010 and repeatedly hit him over the head with a gun, to stop him beating her. This is his...

Arrested. In a bus with great people! #Azerbaijan #ProtestBaku — Emin Milli (@eminmilli) January 26, 2013 So tweeted Azerbaijani writer and dissident @eminmilli on Saturday. He is now serving a 15-day prison sentence. You can tell...