On Thursday, beneath the drowsy overcast sky, amid the cold rain, melting snow and the nervous bustle of midterms season, several convened at the Dodd Center for Human Rights to attend an event titled “Social and Economic Human Rights in 20th Century International Politics.” The speaker at the event, Steven L.B. Jensen, is a historian, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights and author of several books, including “The Making of International Human Rights: The 1960s, Decolonization, and the Reconstruction of Global Values.”
The event consisted of a lecture from Jensen followed by a Q&A session. Both virtual and in-person attendees were present. A range of topics were discussed, but the primary focus fell on the historiography of human rights and how the legacies of past developments continue to shape human rights today.
For Jensen, history is “so much more than being about the past.” It’s a dynamic field rich with potential for investigation and interpretation, and it holds the key to understanding the present moment. Jensen’s aim is to intertwine the two fields and “historicize human rights,” he said.
“Human rights… have all of these different strands, and that’s why having that deeper history is really important,” Jensen stated during his lecture.
Throughout the lecture, Jensen highlighted numerous moments that stand out as important points for understanding human rights history, including the development of the Irish Constitution and its links to the Catholic Church, a report led by Lebanon on the World Social Situation, an attempt by Denmark to maintain their programs of forced sterilization and an appeal made by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to the United Nations (UN)regarding racial discrimination.
Zayda Shevlin, a second-semester journalism major, described her experience at the event as rewarding.
“It was really interesting and opened a lot of doors that I didn’t think about when it came to this stuff,” Shevlin said. “I didn’t think it would be as historical as it was, but it was interesting to get that insight on different events that happened with different countries that I don’t usually learn about.”
The link between the politics of the United States and the larger arena of international human rights was also explored. Jensen highlighted a particularly interesting example of how the civil rights movement at home shaped the way that the United States interacted with international law, citing how the Little Rock Nine influenced American diplomats to be more prominent advocates during the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)Convention Against Discrimination in Education in 1960.
In addition, Jensen discussed America’s rocky relationship with human rights, explaining that the U.S. tried to shut down important human rights structures in the U.N. in the early 1950s as a reaction to their perceived threat against the Jim Crow system.
Jensen also expressed his desire to continue researching the history of human rights in the United States, stating that he had some “misgivings about U.S. human rights historiography,” particularly with the relative lack of scholarship surrounding the 1950s and 1960s. He plans to conduct more research on this topic in the future, he said.
For students today with an interest in the role of the U.S. in international politics, events like these are critical.
“Living in America, I’m learning about the different events with the UN and civil rights, and the different laws that are being passed with just the United States,” Shevlin said. “And it’s interesting to see that comparison that he was giving us through other countries as well.”
Considering the recent developments that have been occurring on the international stage, many may find that the topics discussed in events such as these hold a special relevance now more than ever.
“Steven Jensen’s talk is an extraordinary example of both interdisciplinary scholarship and an incredibly timely use of history to point out persistent injustice,” said Shareen Hertel, a co-sponsor for the event. Hertel is a professor of political science alongside acting as the Wiktor Osiatyński Chair of Human Rights for the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.
For all students interested in learning more about these topics and attending related events in the future, the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute’s event calendar is packed with a range of events to choose from.