Italy invades Ethiopia

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...

The convention committed states to suppress slavery and the slave trade and defined slavery in international law. Its adoption marked a major diplomatic recognition, but colonial forced labor and...

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...

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...

Newly independent and anticolonial states met to oppose colonialism and racial discrimination and to assert political independence. Bandung widened South-South solidarity, building a diplomatic...

The supplementary convention addressed debt bondage, serfdom, forced marriage, and child transfer, widening international attention beyond the formal legal status of slavery. Its adoption followed...