Book description
In the decades following the triumphant proclamation of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the UN General Assembly was
transformed by the arrival of newly independent states from Asia,
Africa, and the Middle East. This diverse constellation of states
introduced new ideas, methods, and priorities to the human rights
program. Their influence was magnified by the highly effective nature
of Asian, Arab, and African diplomacy in the UN human rights bodies
and the sheer numerical superiority of the so-called Afro-Asian bloc.
Owing to the nature of General Assembly procedure, the Third World
states dominated the human rights agenda, and enthusiastic support for
universal human rights was replaced by decades of authoritarianism and
an increasingly strident rejection of the ideas laid out in the
Universal Declaration.
In Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human
Rights, Roland Burke explores the changing impact of
decolonization on the UN human rights program. By recovering the
contributions of those Asian, African, and Arab voices that joined the
global rights debate, Burke demonstrates the central importance of
Third World influence across the most pivotal battles in the UN, from
those that secured the principle of universality, to the passage of
the first binding human rights treaties, to the flawed but radical
step of studying individual pleas for help. The very presence of so
many independent voices from outside the West, and the often defensive
nature of Western interventions, complicates the common presumption
that the postwar human rights project was driven by Europe and the
United States. Drawing on UN transcripts, archives, and the personal
papers of key historical actors, this book challenges the notion that
the international rights order was imposed on an unwilling and
marginalized Third World. Far from being excluded, Asian, African, and
Middle Eastern diplomats were powerful agents in both advancing and
later obstructing the promotion of human rights.
"An important contribution to the historicization and
globalization of the human rights debates over the last six decades. .
. . Burke belongs to a new generation of historians who are more
critical not only of the success rate of the human rights project but
also of the motivations behind advocating a particular human rights
agenda."-Human Rights Quarterly
Roland Burke teaches at La Trobe University.
