Book contents
- Amnesty International and Human Rights Activismin Postwar Britain, 1945–1977
- Human Rights in History
- Amnesty International and Human Rights Activism in Postwar Britain, 1945–1977
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Dawn: 1934–1950
- 2 Africa, Decolonisation and Human Rightsin the 1950s
- 3 Political Imprisonment and Human Rights, 1945–1964
- 4 The Early Years of Amnesty International, 1961–1964
- 5 ‘The Crisis of Growth’: Amnesty International 1964–1968
- 6 1968: the UN Year for Human Rights
- 7 Torture States: 1967–1975
- 8 ‘All Things Come to Those Who Wait’: the Later 1970s
- Conclusion: the Winds of History
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Africa, Decolonisation and Human Rightsin the 1950s
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 April 2020
- Amnesty International and Human Rights Activismin Postwar Britain, 1945–1977
- Human Rights in History
- Amnesty International and Human Rights Activism in Postwar Britain, 1945–1977
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Dawn: 1934–1950
- 2 Africa, Decolonisation and Human Rightsin the 1950s
- 3 Political Imprisonment and Human Rights, 1945–1964
- 4 The Early Years of Amnesty International, 1961–1964
- 5 ‘The Crisis of Growth’: Amnesty International 1964–1968
- 6 1968: the UN Year for Human Rights
- 7 Torture States: 1967–1975
- 8 ‘All Things Come to Those Who Wait’: the Later 1970s
- Conclusion: the Winds of History
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 2 examines how far ideas of human rights were taken up by activists and protest organisations during their campaigns over the end of the British empire in Africa and the creation of the apartheid regime in South Africa. The chapter begins by assessing the impact of African questions on Britain, emphasising the significance of moral – as opposed to political - concerns. The two main sections of the chapter are, first, a detailed discussion of the handful of individuals (in particular Eileen Fletcher) who criticised Britain’s brutal handling of the ‘Mau Mau‘ rebellion in Kenya and, secondly, an analysis of the first phase of the anti-apartheid movement, a campaign which more fully embraced human rights. The chapter concludes by looking at how the emergence of independent African states in the 1950s created new human rights concerns for activists, in particular over the oppression of ethnic minorities.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020