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_full_alt_author_running_head (neem stramien B2 voor dit chapter en nul 0 in hierna): 0 _full_articletitle_deel (kopregel rechts, vul hierna in): The Making of International Human Rights _full_article_language: en indien anders: engelse articletitle: 0 590 Jensen Book Review 2 The Making of International Human Rights The 1960s, Decolonization and the Reconstruction of Global Values Steven L.B. Jensen (Cambridge | New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016) 313 pp. ISBN 9781107531079 (hardback) ISBN 9781316282571 (e-book) Reviewer: Dr. Antal Berkes Steven L.B. Jensen’s book The Making of International Human Rights. The 1960s, Decolonization and the Reconstruction of Global Values aims to provide a new reading on the decisive role of the 1960s in the history of human rights through an emphasis on racial discrimination and religious intolerance. The book’s ba- sic argument, that from 1962 until around 1975, race and religion were defining for the legal and political breakthrough in the human rights field that took place, is both instructive and thought-provoking. It is instructive because all the major developments of the 1960s and early 1970s can be explained as dip- lomatic and human rights actions against discrimination based on race and religion. It is thought-provoking because the narrative challenges the domi- nant Eurocentric scholarship of human rights history. One of the strengths of Jensen’s book is the frequent return to key moments and aspirations of international actors of the 1960s in the history of human rights. One such key moment was the UN General Assembly in 1962: the book illustrates how decisive it was for the emergence of a leading actor in human rights (Jamaica), for the two key themes of human rights claims (race and re- ligion) and for the place of human rights in broader legal diplomacy and the politics of international law-making. Jensen convincingly proves his argument by pointing out various instances in the 1960s–1970s when Global South diplo- mats at the United Nations from Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, and the Philippines pushed forward human rights agendas that were not driven by Europe, the United States, or the Soviet Union, in particular issues of race and religion. Jensen claims that race and religion ‘were political Achilles’ heels for the two superpowers’ (138). © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004401716_026 _full_alt_author_running_head (neem stramien B2 voor dit chapter en nul 0 in hierna): 0 _full_articletitle_deel (kopregel rechts, vul hierna in): The Making of International Human Rights _full_article_language: en indien anders: engelse articletitle: 0 The Making of International Human Rights 591 However, while reading Chapter 7 on ‘Human rights and the Helsinki Final Act (1962-1975)’ and Chapter 8 on ‘The presence of the disappeared (1968- 1993),’ the impact of the decolonisation era and the states of the Global South is less direct and straightforward. The role of Western agency, or at least the European States, in human rights diplomacy and law-making is still dominant if one considers the negotiations of the Helsinki process and ‘the human rights revolution’ of the 1970s. Jensen convincingly illustrates that the Liberian initia- tive in the 1960s placing freedom of thought, conscience and religion high on the agenda for international human rights diplomacy had also influenced the 1970 UN Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States. While Jensen demonstrates that the 1970 UN Declaration introduced human rights language at the front-door of the 1970s (217) and inspired Principle 7 of the Helsinki Final Act, the causality with the Helsinki Procedure is less clear and indirect, especially the role of race and religion. The role of the 1960s, on the one hand, and race and religion, on the other hand, is even less visible in the history of human rights activism against forced disappearance and torture (Chapter 8), where the international community engaged in law-making against political rather than racial or reli- gious oppression. Simultaneous and parallel legal-diplomatic negotiations such as those of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimina- tion Against Women (1979) or the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990) would have reflected more directly the contribution of the Global South. Never theless, the varying emphasis of Jensen’s last chapters does not alter the significance of the role of the Global South in almost every achievement of international human rights law during the Cold War. Another merit of the book is the nuanced and meticulous integration of historical context in the development of international human rights law. The national history of main actors such as Jamaica (69-101 – as a main broker of UN human rights diplomacy from 1962 to 1968), Argentina (263-268 – the rise and fall of the military junta), the Soviet Union (e.g. 179 – the prosecution of Soviet writers and dissidents) or Iran (186 – Iran during the Tehran conference) is often taken into account as a motor of human rights diplomacy. Beyond the traditional East–West divide of the bipolar world in the 1960s–1970s, Jensen clarifies the nuanced points of divergence between allies of the two blocks and the Global South (e.g. 54 – regarding the 1960 UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples), or among Third World States (e.g. 169 – regarding a proposal on freedom of religion), while also in- dicating points of convergence between the two blocks (e.g. 195-196 – regard- ing the Tehran Final Act). The broad view of the historical context is further .