The history of how Special Procedures were first envisaged, considered, mooted, negotiated, and created impacted the evolution of the internationalization of human rights under the auspices of the UN Commission on Human Rights. The trajectory of these mechanisms provides key insights into both the overall direction and the conduct of politics concerning not only human rights but also development and issues concerned with peace and security at the United Nations. They correspondingly serve as a backdrop to many contemporary global concerns in how they are articulated, defended, and responded to by multilateral organizations. This chapter outlines the key events leading to the birth of the first public and confidential Special Procedures as a positive outcome of what was a highly politicized process. The first section explains the rationale underpinning the polar change of direction of the Commission on Human Rights, from a position where it initially denied its own competence to address human rights violations, to its decision to create subsidiary fact-finding bodies with exactly such purpose. The ad hoc nature of their establishment—from which their derive their denomination as “Special”—against political realities of the time led to a non-linear history that explains many of their current features.
The history of forensic medicine department SSMU (to the 110th jubilee)