Chen Guangcheng, an outspoken activist known as China's "barefoot lawyer," was originally wanted in his rural town for exposing forced abortions and other human rights abuses. In May he urged the US Council on Foreign Relations [official website] to "try harder" to promote the rule of law [JURIST report] in China. Chen arrived in New York only a week earlier after he left the US embassy [JURIST reports] earlier in the month. His arrival resolved a US-China struggle that began when he escaped [JURIST report] from his house arrest and sought refuge at the US embassy in Beijing in April. The house arrest began after Chen had already served four years in prison [JURIST reports] for damaging property and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic."

Egypt's revolution [JURIST backgrounder] last year has generated many political clashes, particularly regarding the draft constitution. Last week UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] expressed grave concern [JURIST report] at the rising death toll during the ongoing political chaos. Pillay complained that Egypt's draft constitution passed without the participation of Christian or liberal legislators and that it omitted references to international human rights treaties that Egypt had ratified. Also last week Egypt's Supreme Judicial Council agreed to oversee the national referendum [JURIST report] on the country's new constitution and planned to delegate about 10,000 judges to monitor the referendum. In late November Egyptian courts suspended work [JURIST report] to protest Morsi's decree because it had removed judicial review of his actions. In October Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] urged Egypt to amend its proposed constitution [JURIST report] to comply with international treaties. In July, a few days after he was sworn in as president, Morsi issued a decree [JURIST reports] calling the Egyptian parliament back into session, despite a previous ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court dissolving parliament after finding that one-third of its members were elected illegally. The court suspended Morsi's decree two days later, after which Morsi vowed that he would respect the ruling [JURIST reports]. Days before its dissolution, the Egyptian parliament elected a new constitutional council after lawmakers finally reached an agreement [JURIST reports] on the political composition of the council.