“Race” and species in the post-World War II United Nations discourse on human rights

2013 ◽  
pp. 67-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Corbey
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii

scholarly journals State-Building after Disaster: Jiang Tingfu and the Reconstruction of Post-World War II China, 1943–1949

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 176-206
Author(s):  
Rana Mitter
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Civil War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
State Building ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
Chinese Civil War ◽  
New Thinking

AbstractPost-World War II reconstruction in Europe and Asia is a topic of growing interest, but relatively little attention has been paid to the relief and rehabilitation effort in China in the immediate post-1945 period. This article reassesses the postwar program implemented by the Chinese Nationalist (Guomindang) government and the UNRRA (the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), not just in terms of humanitarian relief, but also as part of a process that led to new thinking about the nature of the postwar state in Asia. It focuses on the ideas and actions of Jiang Tingfu (T. F. Tsiang), head of the Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration that worked with UNRRA. Chinese ideas for reconstruction in China were simultaneously statist, international, and transnational, and were shaped by high modern ideas drawn from Soviet and American examples. They were also influenced by China's poverty and wartime vulnerability, which made locally directed solutions more relevant in areas such as public hygiene. Success was unlikely because of the incipient Chinese Civil War and the huge demands of reconstruction on a state that was near-destitute, with a destroyed infrastructure. Nonetheless, its characteristics still bear examination as a first, tentative chapter in a longer story of post-imperialist and Cold War state-building that would shape countries in Asia and beyond.

‘African philosophy’ The History of an Expression

2019 ◽  
pp. 291-302
Author(s):  
Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
African Philosophy ◽  
World War ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

Souleymane Bachir Diagne’s text is on the history of what has been called ‘African philosophy,’ a phrase with origins in the early post-World War II period. Diagne begins by tracing the complex history and legacy of the book Bantu Philosophy (1949), which was written by the philosopher and theologian Placide Tempels, a Franciscan missionary and Belgian citizen. Diagne argues that that text represented an important break with the way in which Africa had been ignored and set aside in philosophical circles (a practice that Diagne traces to Hegel). From there, he outlines how currents in African philosophy first imitated, and then later broke with, Tempels’s model. He concludes with observations on current trends in African philosophy, which above all focus on democratic transitions, human rights, the future of the arts, citizenship, and languages in use on the continent today.

Africa, the United Nations, and Third Generation Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 96-133
Author(s):  
Derrick M. Nault
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
World War ◽  
Global Inequality ◽  
Right To Development ◽  
International Body ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

Chapter Four assesses Africa’s contributions to ‘third generation’ rights—‘solidarity’ or ‘group rights’ that emerged in tandem with decolonization after World War II. It traces the genealogy of three such human rights incorporated into the mandate of the United Nations (UN) from the 1950s to 1980s—the right to self-determination, the right to racial non-discrimination, and the right to development—arguing that African political lobbying proved decisive for the recognition and codification of these interrelated rights at the UN. Through writings and speeches critical of colonialism, racism, and global inequality; cultivating alliances with non-African Third World nations; and making the United Nations a more inclusive and representative international body, African leaders, it is shown, helped redefine human rights at the UN in ways that continue to reverberate in our own era.

Gerhard Mueller’s Role in Developing the Concept of Transnational Crime for the United Nations

2021 ◽  
pp. 70-83
Author(s):  
Mangai Natarajan
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Transnational Crime ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Impact

Mangai Natarajan explores the impact of the influential criminologist Gerhard Mueller on the formation of the concept of transnational crime and its institutionalization in the post-World War II period. She shows how he introduced the term transnational crime in the mid-1970s at the UN Crime Congress in Switzerland as a criminological term to describe cross-border crime, and how it slowly evolved into a legal rather than criminological descriptor and was taken up by the UN criminal justice bureaucracy.

The United Nations Between Empire and Emancipation

2019 ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Henning Melber
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Indian Population ◽  
Global South ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
World War ◽  
Nationalist Movements ◽  
The United Nations

This chapter revisits the normative frameworks on which the establishment of the United Nations were based after World War II. It includes discussion about the Atlantic Charter as a precursor to the UN Charter, and recapitulates the differences in interpretation of self-determination and sovereignty between the Western states and the nationalist movements in the Global South that were fighting against colonialism for Independence. Reference to the normative and political power of human rights discourses challenge claims that these were ineffective by Mark Mazower and Samuel Moyn. Rather, this chapter argues that their utilization by representatives of the nationalist movements in colonized territories show their relevance and the support they offered to their struggles. The condemnation of South Africa for its treatment of the Indian population is used to illustrate this point.

Where the UN Has Failed to Live Up to Its Mission: Looking Back to Look Forward

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-359
Author(s):  
Devaki Jain
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Current Flow ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
Special Location ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Looking Back

AbstractIn its seventy-fifth year, the UN needs to reflect more seriously on its value in the current global scenario, the current flow of ideas, and the current flow of power that is prevalent in the world. It is important to recall that the UN was founded after World War II as a way of addressing conflict at the negotiating table rather than on the battlefield. Negotiating peace, attempting to provide some form of justice, and affirmation of human rights seemed to be the aspiration. It is within this context that women engaged in affirming their own special location in society and economy. However, over the years the UN has revealed its inability to fulfill these goals. Perhaps in the midst of all these failures, the only category of people that has drawn strength from the UN, but now has to leave it behind, are women. Scattered as they were across a world of distances, women of different cultures and classes found strength in numbers and, through the UN system and the conferences they convened, became a power of their own. As part of the special issue on “The United Nations at Seventy-Five: Looking Back to Look Forward,” this essay argues that today, however, women do not need and cannot have their aspirations be facilitated by the UN, because in their engagement with one another they have also recognized their differences. Being of similar gender does not necessarily overcome other oppressive differences.

scholarly journals Enforcement of Human Rights: Effectiveness of International Legislation

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
Devarshi Mukhopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
World War ◽  
Enforcement Mechanism ◽  
Treaty Ratification ◽  
Post World War Ii

The juxtaposition of legal sovereignty against international duty (in the form of fostering greater respect for human rights across the globe) became one of the founding attributes of the post World War II political regime. Several human rights legislations were coined, deliberated upon, and ratified. However, the fact that ratification alone has not led to better human rights regime is something that many would not deny. In fact, this entire concept of drafting soft law principles has been cynically questioned by critics, citing the lack of a proper enforcement mechanism and real legitimacy as reasons for its failure. Moreover, several empirical studies have been evidence of the fact that respect for human rights is more intrinsically connected with ancillary principles such as a democratic regime, the strength of participation of civil society, the conflict status of a country and several others, and not treaty ratification alone. It is this claim that the researcher has analyzed in the course of this paper

Communist China's Changing Attitudes Toward the United Nations

1966 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byron S. Weng
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Changing Attitudes

The so-called “Chinese Question” in the United Nations has been an issue in UN politics for the last seventeen years. It has hampered the operation of the UN and influenced the course of post-World War II international politics. Yet little study has been done with regard to the attitudes of the Communist Chinese themselves toward the UN.

Intercultural Experience, the Anglo-American Occupation and UNESCO in Germany 1945–1949

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Morley
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Scientific Organization ◽  
World War ◽  
United Nations Educational ◽  
Intercultural Experience ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Negative Sense

Independent of each other, though contemporaneous, the Anglo-American occupiers of Germany and the newly founded United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization employed culture to foster greater intercultural and international understanding in 1945. Both enterprises separately saw culture as offering a means of securing the peace in the long term. This article compares the stated intentions and activities of the Anglo-American occupiers and UNESCO vis-à-vis transforming morals and public opinion in Germany for the better after World War II. It reconceptualizes the mobilization of culture to transform Germany through engaging theories of cultural diplomacy and propaganda. It argues that rather than merely engaging in propaganda in the negative sense, elements of these efforts can also be viewed as propaganda in the earlier, morally neutral sense of the term, despite the fact that clear geopolitical aims lay at the heart of the cultural activities of both the occupiers and UNESCO.

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