Race, human rights and the Global South at the first session of the UN General Assembly

Histories of the early development of human rights within the United Nations emphasise standard-setting, largely the work of Western intellectuals. Examination of the first session of the General Assembly, in 1946, shows that it was countries of the Global South that pushed the human rights agenda, largely with regard to issues concerning racial discrimination. Three resolutions are featured, dealing with South Africa’s racist treatment of the Indian minority, discrimination and prejudice more generally, and recognition of the crime of genocide. Western countries had been confident that the domestic jurisdiction clause in the Charter of the United Nations would insulate them from examination of their own records. India successfully led the battle to limit the role of this clause. The first human rights petitions were presented to the United Nations, an initiative of African-American organisations directed against Jim Crow and lynching in the United States.