Free Talk Live

Massachusetts special-needs facility is believed to be the only one in the world that uses 'aversive therapy' in treating children - The UN's special rapporteur on torture has made a formal approach to the US government over a special-needs school near Boston that inflicts electric shocks on autistic children as a form of behavioural control. Juan Mendez has told the Guardian that he has opened discussions with the US mission to the UN in Geneva as a first step towards investigating the school. The rapporteur plans to contact the US state department and has the option of reporting the matter to the UN human rights council.