Anticolonial Rights Advocacy

It is often asserted that human rights discourse and practice principally originated following the Second World War, or as late as the 1970s, and that human rights claims are inherently Western and liberal. None of these assertions are true. In fact, both rights-based critiques and rights claims were frequently articulated prior to the Second World War. They were articulated not only by Western liberals, but also by anticolonial advocates from every part of the world.

This article explores anticolonial rights claims advanced between the end of the First World War and 1930. Rights claims were extensively made by numerous groups during that period in a range of contexts and towards a variety of ends. Recovering interwar anticolonial rights advocacy is important to refute suggestions that human rights claims are of more recent origin and that they are inherently Western. In addition, recovering early twentieth century rights claims is important because of the progressive ways in which rights were often understood and articulated in the period: as deeply interconnected; as an intrinsic part of anticolonial struggle; and as inextricably linked to workers' rights and longer-term struggles for labor freedom.