Chen Guangcheng

Chen was born in Shandong and later studied law independently to assist villagers.[3]

The editorial biography records a challenge over taxes despite an exemption, followed by assistance to other villagers.[5]

The UN opinion recounts Chen and Yuan Weijing investigating villagers’ accounts of coercive enforcement of birth quotas and preparing material for legal action.

Chen and Yuan Weijing gathered villagers’ accounts of coercive birth-planning enforcement and prepared material for possible litigation. Restrictions subsequently affected movement, communication and access by lawyers, linking the investigation to the later prosecution. The villagers’ accounts and judicial allegations remain attributed to their respective sources.[3]

The Working Group’s opinion examines confinement beginning August 12, involving restrictions on leaving home and outside contact.[3]

Paragraph 13 records a suit against two township officials at Yinan County Court concerning the alleged beating outside Chen’s home on October 24.[3]

After earlier restrictions at home, Chen was formally arrested. The first-instance judgment followed that August.[2]

Paragraph 16 records lawyers meeting Chen after three months without access; guards interrupt questions about his earlier place of detention.[3]

Yinan County Court imposes four years and three months on charges involving property destruction and disruption of traffic.[2]

Paragraph 28 of the opinion records that Linyi Intermediate Court overturned the first-instance judgment for insufficient evidence and ordered a retrial.[3]

Paragraph 35 finds category I arbitrary detention for August 12, 2005–March 12, 2006 and category II thereafter. Paragraph 32 withholds a final assessment of all fair-trial issues pending retrial.

Opinion No. 47/2006 distinguished the residential restrictions from August 12, 2005 to March 12, 2006 from subsequent detention, finding them arbitrary under categories I and II respectively. It also recorded the appellate decision to quash the initial judgment and order a retrial. A retrial order was not a final acquittal, and the Working Group’s opinion was not a Chinese appellate judgment.[3]

After completing his sentence, Chen was escorted home by police; surveillance continued at the house and village entrance.[2]

The 2012 Special Procedures communication records his reported escape from the monitored home that day.

The escape followed continuing residential restrictions after completion of his prison term in 2010. The UN’s May 15 urgent appeal concerned reported threats and detention affecting relatives and those who helped him. The Bush Center’s biography and oral history record his arrival in New York with his family on May 19 and a visiting-study opportunity at New York University.[1][5]

UN Special Procedures sent urgent appeal CHN 4/2012 concerning reported threats and detention affecting relatives and people who helped him.[1]

Chen and his family arrived in New York, where New York University offered him a visiting position. The Bush Center’s editorial biography records the arrival date.[5]

The publisher’s release date for this edition of The Barefoot Lawyer.[8]

Associated Press reports that Chen became a US citizen in Baltimore on this date and celebrated with his legal team on July 8.[7]

The university’s event record places him on the legal institutions panel at Capitol Hill.[6]