Human Rights, Development and Decolonization: The International Labour Organization, 1940-70(International Labour Organization (ILO) Century Series)

The significance of international organisations as historical actors is one of the least researched aspects 20th century history. Daniel Maul's study of the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) during the core phase of decolonization (1940 to 1970) opens up new perspectives on the topic. Clearly presented, methodologically innovative and based on a wide range of sources, Maul explores makes clear the multifarious ways in which the ILO contributed to the debates which accompanied the dissolution of the European colonial empires and the processes of post-colonial nation-building that followed, both as a political hub and a forum for debate and as an independent actor. Maul takes an innovative look at the history of decolonization, post-colonial nation-building and the enduringly relevant international human rights and development discourses that these processes spawned.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Timeline Introduction PART I: 'A PEOPLE'S PEACE IN THE COLONIES', 1940--47 'The promise of a new earth to till': The ILO's Colonial Work in Exile, 1940--43 A Charter for the Colonies: The Colonies at the Philadelphia Conference, 1944 A New World With New Ideas: The ILO and the Quest for a Colonial Post-war Order, 1945--48 PART II: THE TOOLS OF PROGRESS: THE ILO, 1948--60 Principled Development: The Beginnings of the Technical Assistance Programme (TAP) At Arm's Length: The ILO and Late Colonial Social Policy Universal Rights? Standard-setting Against the Backdrop of Late Colonialism, Decolonization and the Cold War PART III: A GROWING CONFLICT: DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS AND DECOLONIZATION, 1960--70 A New Power: The ILO and the Growing Importance of the Developing World in the 1960s An Intellectual Fashion: Human Rights Standards as a Barrier to Development? Conclusion Appendix I: Selection of Important Conventions and Recommendations, 1930--70 Appendix II: Ratification of Core Human Rights Standards by Country and Date of Ratification (Selection) Sources and Bibliography Index

About the Author :
DANIEL ROGER MAULLecturer in the Department of History, Justus-Liebig-Universitat Giessen, Germany, and has published widely on the history of globalization and international organizations. He is currently working on a history of international relief in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Review :
'Abreak-through in historical scholarship on international politics in the twentieth century in general and on the role of international organizations, human rights and development in particular. It is immensely gratifying to see this excellent book appear in English translation, which makes it available to the large international audience it deserves. A carefully crafted, well-written study, the book will become a standard work for scholars and students in history, political science, human rights and development studies.' - Corinna R. Unger, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany 'This excellent book offers fresh insights into the complex field of international social policy. After difficult beginnings the International Labour Organization became 'a world en miniature', within which a new state order with new nations and new ideas, hopes, and claims for freedom and human rights emerged in the decades after World War II. The ILO shaped the process of decolonization in manifold ways and, as Daniel Maul shows on the basis of much new evidence, helped to establish a discourse of global responsibility.' -Andreas Eckert, Humboldt Universitat Berlin, Germany