League of Nations adopts the Slavery Convention

The congress debated racial equality and imperial power in an era when colonial rule was presented as a civilizing mission. Du Bois and other Black intellectuals used the international meeting to...

Held during the Paris Peace Conference, the congress demanded that Africans and people of African descent have a say in the postwar order. Its delegates linked colonial self-government and racial...

The ILO constitution made labor conditions an international concern in the postwar order. Its early framework coexisted with colonial forced labor and unequal representation; workers and...

The treaty entered into force, bringing the League of Nations into being and creating an international body that addressed slavery and forced labor. The new order remained dominated by empires and did...

At its 1920 convention in New York, the UNIA adopted a declaration asserting political, civil, and economic rights for Black people worldwide. Its mass membership connected Caribbean migrants, African...

Convention No. 29 required ratifying states to suppress forced or compulsory labor, but permitted exceptions including some colonial public works. The colonial exception exposes how international...

Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia provoked condemnation and solidarity across Africa and the diaspora. The attack on one of the few African states then retaining sovereignty exposed the limits of the...

The Manchester congress brought trade unionists, students, and political organizers into a program demanding African self-government and an end to colonial exploitation. Women organizers and delegates...

The Charter established the United Nations and affirmed self-determination as a principle, while colonial empires remained in place. Delegates from colonized and newly independent societies pressed...

The General Assembly adopted a declaration stating that no one should be held in slavery or servitude. Women and delegates from the Global South, including Hansa Mehta of India, helped shape its...