Geneva: The UN's top human rights official is expressing alarm about the casualties resulting from protests over Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi's draft constitution.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says she welcomes Mursi's call for dialogue but regrets that tensions haven't subsided due to the president's decrees giving him almost absolute power and advancing an Islamist-friendly constitution to a referendum on December 15.
Egypt's opposition forces have staged mass demonstrations and clashed with Mursi's backers from the Muslim Brotherhood, resulting in six people killed and at least 700 injured.
Pillay said in a statement today that the draft constitution contains "some very worrying omissions and ambiguities, and in some areas the protections in it are even weaker than the 1971 constitution it is supposed to replace."
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 07, 2012, 18:02