UN Committee against Torture condemns US human rights record
The United Nations harshly criticized the United States on Friday for torturing detainees in prison, the militarization of police and "numerous reports" of police brutality against minorities. ● A report by the UN Committee against Torture concluded that the US has failed to comply with international anti-torture treaties, citing police shootings of unarmed black youth, military interrogations, maximum security prisons and extensive use of solitary confinement among areas of concern. The UN Convention's first review of the US record on preventing torture since 2006 came amid high tensions and violent protests in the US against a grand jury's decision to exonerate a white police officer after he shot dead a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer. The UN committee cited deep concern about the frequent sexual assault of inmates, shackling of pregnant women in some prisons, racial profiling, as well as the "excruciating pain and prolonged suffering” of prisoners during "botched executions."