Bandung, 1955: Asian-African Conference and human rights in Online Atlas on the History of Humanitarianism and Human Rights

• Main Author: Patrick QUINTON-BROWN
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2016
• Subjects: Asian Studies; International Relations
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3912; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5170/viewcontent/Bandung_cc_nc_sa.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The 1955 Asian-African Conference (also known as the “Bandung Conference”), took place on April 18–24 in Bandung, Indonesia. The conference, co-sponsored by Burma, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, brought together 29 newly independent nations of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The states in attendance comprised almost half of the UN membership and collectively represented about 1.5 billion people. They came together to discuss common concerns surrounding anticolonial nationalism, self-determination, non-interference, and Great Power dominance over international affairs. The conference also marked a major turning point in the history of universal human rights in that its framing of self-determination as a prerequisite to fully enjoy fundamental rights became a central reference point for anticolonial thinkers of the twentieth century. In Online Atlas on the History of Humanitarianism and Human Rights, edited by Fabian Klose, Marc Palen, Johannes Paulmann, and Andrew Thompson. Leibniz Institute of European History and the University of Exeter, 2016.