Steven L. B. Jensen

 

Abstract: The paper reflects on the state of human rights historiography and presents the new interpretations that have emerged in the last 3-5 years. It outlines the historical developments from the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights up until around 1970. The main point is showing the centrality of the post-1945 decolonization process for the evolution of human rights and the pivotal role played by actors from the Global South in the legal, political and diplomatic breakthrough for international human rights. The paper presents a critique of the notion of the human rights project being Western-centric or Western imposed by illustrating a key finding from the new historical scholarship, namely that human rights in important – even foundational – ways came in from the Global South.

 

Keywords: Human rights history; Global South; diplomacy; global values