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The Division of Human Rights was charged with responding to communications dealing with human rights from individuals, groups and governments to the Secretary-General. In accordance with ECOSOC resolutions 75 and 116A, these communications were compiled and communicated to the Commission on Human Rights and to governments concerned.

With the creation of the ad hoc Commission on Questions of Prisoners of War the Division supported the three member Commission in its work on the repatriation of prisoners of war.

In addition to the question of prisoners of war, the plight of survivors, notably those that had been subject to scientific experiments by Nazi doctors, was a humanitarian problem which the Secretariat approached in an unorthodox way. Not only was the Division of Human Rights charged with the task of bringing to the attention of the German government individual case information on victims, but the Director and Assistant Director of the Division traveled to Germany for the purpose of direct negotiations with the German authorities regarding legislation enabling compensation for the victims.

This series of records documents the work of the Division concerning victims of war and includes records from the Diplomatic Conference in Geneva in 1949 that established the four Geneva Conventions.

The Commission on the Status of Women adopted at its fourth session in 1950 a resolution calling attention to the plight of women survivors of concentration camps who were subjected to medical experiments. At the subsequent session of the Economic and Social Council, the report from the Commission was examined, the view being expressed that the United Nations should lend its support to negotiations between the Allied High Commission and the Federal German Government for compensation legislation in Germany for these victims and to this end the Council adopted resolution 305 (XI) on 14 July 1950.

Under the terms of ECOSOC resolution 305 the Secretary-General was requested to consider, with the competent authorities and institutions, the means for alleviating the plight of survivors of concentration camps who, under the Nazi regime, were the victims of the so-called "scientific experiments".

This series is continued under the sub-series SOA 417/3 Compensation for Injuries.