UN investigator says torture continues in Uzbekistan News
UN investigator says torture continues in Uzbekistan

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak [official profile, DOC] has said that Uzbekistan [JURIST news archive] authorities continue to use torture [JURIST news archive], particularly against those who oppose the government, noting that he has evidence of systematic torture by police and security forces in the country. Nowak also criticized Germany for failing to arrest former Uzbek Interior Minister Zakir Almatov while he was seeking medical treatment there.

Almatov is suspected of using torture during his tenure, and he oversaw the violent crackdown in Andijan [HRW backgrounder], in which government forces fired on demonstrators and killed as many as 500 protesters. Nowak said that as a party to the UN Convention against Torture [text], Germany is required to detain torture suspects. Nowak has previously called for Almatov's prosecution by German authorities [UN news release; JURIST report]. Radio Free Europe has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

First Fleet departs from England to establish penal colony in Australia

On May 13, 1787, the First Fleet departed from England, carrying 780 British convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia. Led by Captain Arthur Philip, all eleven ships arrived safely in Botany Bay, New South Wales, Australia in January of 1788.

Read Captain Philip's account of his voyage on Project Gutenberg, and learn more about the journey and its impact from First Fleet online.

Federal government denied funding to segregated school districts

On May 13, 1966, the US federal government took its first action against violators of the desegregation guidelines of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by denying federal education funding for 12 segregated Southern school districts. Learn more about school desegregation.