Summary
In his essay for the Carr Center's latest publication, Making a Movement: The History and Future of Human Rights, Khalil Gibran Muhammad discusses how activists have challenged centuries-long forms of oppression and state violence since the creation of the UDHR.
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race and Public Policy; Director, Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project, Harvard Kennedy School
"Since the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, anti-colonial activists in the United States and in numerous parts of the Global South have appropriated the language of human rights to challenge centuries-long forms of oppression and state violence.
"Among the first to call upon the UN to intervene on behalf of thousands of victims of anti-Black terrorism was the Civil Rights Congress, founded by William Patterson. In 1951, a delegation led by the international labor activist and entertainer Paul Robeson delivered a UN petition written by Patterson to investigate the U.S. government for violating the human rights of Black citizens who 'suffer from genocide.'
"The petition was never taken up by the UN due to pressure from U.S. officials, but it did receive international attention, especially among Cold War rivals of the U.S. and anti-colonialists around the world. This was an early indication of America’s refusal to abide by new international human rights standards. And yet, despite the blatant hypocrisy of America’s racist treatment of its Black citizens after the defeat of Nazi Germany while claiming to be the leader of the democratic free world, international scrutiny contributed to the gradual demise of formal racial segregation beginning in 1954. One year later, African and Asian leaders from several countries, including Algeria, India, and South Africa, as well as African Americans, such as Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and the author Richard Wright, gathered in Bandung, Indonesia to pursue global decolonization. As one observer reported, the conference participants 'deplored the policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination which forms the basis of government and human relations in large regions of Africa and in other parts of the world. Such conduct is not only a gross violation of human rights, but also a denial of the fundamental values of civilization and the dignity of man.'
"Today's resurgent white supremacy and white nationalism in the U.S. and in many parts of Europe pose severe threats to the already billions of vulnerable people of color who live with the legacies of slavery and colonialism in rich and poor nations."
"Two years later, in 1957, Ghana became the first African country to gain its independence from colonial rule. Many others soon followed. In this moment, the UN also played an important role in bolstering the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, although the United States and other European nations opposed such efforts for decades.
"Today’s resurgent white supremacy and white nationalism in the U.S. and in many parts of Europe pose severe threats to the already billions of vulnerable people of color who live with the legacies of slavery and colonialism in rich and poor nations. Although vulnerable people in rich nations have higher standards of living and longer life expectancies, they share in common with residents of poor nations economic and food insecurity, extreme exposure to environmental toxins, limited access to high-quality healthcare, and existential threats of climate-related disasters. Their own efforts to mitigate these severe problems by democratic means as well as migration are fueling authoritarian movements in a vicious cycle." â–