Exploring Asia-Africa Consensus on Human Rights in the Context of the Cold War: A Historical Perspective of the Bandung Conference

HUA Guoyu* & LIU Xiaolan**

Abstract: The Bandung Conference was held against the international background of intensified confrontation during the Cold War, and the human rights issues discussed at the conference exhibited a complex dual character. On the one hand, some human rights issues were politicized as a means of international struggle, hindering the awakening of human rights subjectivity of the participating countries. On the other hand, by endorsing the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to demand equal rights and the right to discourse, the conference emphasized propositions such as people’s self-determination, anti-colonialism and anti-racism, promoting the integration of Asia-Africa human rights demands into the international human rights agenda. The principle of seeking common ground while reserving differences proposed by China played a positive role in promoting conference solidarity and resolving differences. The conference provided impetus for the early efforts of Asian and African countries to promote human rights and laid a promising foundation for regional human rights consensus.

Keywords: Bandung Conference · Asia-Africa · human rights consensus · people’s self-determination