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From Civil Liberties to Human Rights? British Civil Liberties Activism and Universal Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2012

CHRISTOPHER MOORES
CHRISTOPHER MOORES*
Affiliation:
School of History and Cultures, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham. B15 2TT; [email protected]
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Abstract

This article discusses British civil liberties organisations hoping to engage in a broader human rights politics during and immediately after the Second World War. It argues that various movements and organisations from sections of the British Left attempted to articulate a human rights politics which incorporated political, civil, social and economic rights during the 1940s and early 1950s. However, organisations were unable to express this and mobilise accordingly. This reflected the collapse of the popular-front-style alliances forged in the 1930s and the difficulties in articulating political positions distinct from the ideological polarisation that emerged with the onset of the Cold War.

Des libertés civiles aux droits de l'homme? l'activisme britannique pour les libertés civiles et les droits de l'homme universels

Cet article discute les organisations britanniques pour les libertés civiles qui cherchaient à ouvrir un débat de grande envergure sur les droits de l'homme pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale et les immédiatement après. Il décrit les tentatives faites, pendant les années 1940 et 1950, par des mouvements et groupes adhérents de la gauche cherchant à construire une politique des droits de l'homme qui comprendrait droits politiques, civils, sociaux et économiques. Cette politique fut mal formulée et donc peu soutenue. On y trouve un reflet de l'effondrement des alliances du type front populaire créées pendant les années 1930, et de la difficulté d'articuler des positions politiques clairement distinctes au sein des polarisations idéologiques dues à l'amorcement de la guerre froide.

Von bürgerlichen freiheitsrechten zu menschenrechten? britische kampagnen zum schutz der bürgerlichen freiheitsrechte und die allgemeine erklärung der menschenrechte

Dieser Artikel diskutiert, wie britische Organisationen, die sich während und unmittelbar nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg für bürgerliche Freiheitsrechte einsetzten, versuchten, sich in Bezug auf Menschenrechtspolitik zu positionieren. Der Artikel argumentiert, dass diese Organisationen und Bewegungen aus verschiedenen Bereichen der britischen Linken während der 1940er und frühen 1950er Jahre versuchten, eine Menschenrechtspolitik zu artikulieren, welche politische, bürgerliche, soziale und wirtschaftliche Rechte und Freiheiten umfasste. Diese Organisationen verfügten aber nicht über die Sprache, die es ihnen ermöglicht hätte, diese Politik auch auszudrücken und die britische Bevölkerung entsprechend zu mobilisieren. Dies spiegelte sowohl den Kollaps von Allianzen im Rahmen der ‘Volksfrontbewegungen’ der 1930er Jahre wieder als auch die Schwierigkeiten, die sich aus der Polarisierung der politischen Kultur zu Beginn des Kalten Krieges ergaben.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , May 2012 , pp. 169 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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