Rethinking the legal foundations of control in international human rights law - the case of special procedures

Some states, having gained increased weight in the United Nations [UN] human rights machinery, pushed through reforms of the Charter-bodies designed to limit their powers of investigation. This paper focuses on the impact of these views in relation to the methods of work developed by special procedures. However, it also highlights how the limits imposed on the freedom enjoyed so far by mandate-holders in the performance of their functions may have provided the most powerful arguments to overcome their brittle legal foundations, and to provide sound legal basis to the most intrusive activities of such procedures. The approval of a Code of Conduct appears to endorse a practice that subverts the traditional requirement of state consent when monitoring activities result in a final assessment based on international law as to the existence of a violation.