Decolonisation, Bandung and the Non-Aligned Movement

In one line

Decolonisation trebled the membership of the United Nations, Bandung in 1955 gathered the newly independent States around a common political position, the Non-Aligned Movement was founded at Belgrade in 1961 to institutionalise it, and the Group of 77 was formed at the first trade conference in 1964 to convert numbers into an economic programme.

The arithmetic

The United Nations was founded in 1945 by fifty-one States. By the mid-1970s membership had passed one hundred and forty.

The new members were almost all former colonies, and in the General Assembly each has one vote under article 18.

That single institutional fact is why the campaign was run in the Assembly and not in the financial institutions. In the Assembly the majority is numerical; in the Bank and the Fund voting is weighted by subscription. A programme that could pass by 120 votes to 6 in one forum could not be raised in the other. [The Role of the United Nations in Advocating the Order].

Bandung, 1955

The Asian-African Conference met at Bandung in Indonesia in April 1955, with twenty-nine States representing a majority of the world's population, most of them independent for less than a decade.

Its final communiqué covered economic co-operation, cultural co-operation, human rights and self-determination, the problems of dependent peoples, and the promotion of world peace and co-operation, ending in ten principles.

The ten principles include respect for fundamental human rights and for the purposes and principles of the Charter; respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations; recognition of the equality of all races and of the equality of all nations large and small; abstention from intervention or interference in the internal affairs of another country; respect for the right of each nation to defend itself; abstention from the use of collective defence arrangements to serve the particular interests of any of the big powers; refraining from acts or threats of aggression; settlement of disputes by peaceful means; promotion of mutual interests and co-operation; and respect for justice and international obligations.

Bandung was political, not economic. Its economic section urged co-operation, technical assistance and commodity stabilisation, and it did not demand restructuring. Its importance is that it created the habit of collective action.

And its human rights content is worth naming, since it declared support for the fundamental principles of human rights as set forth in the Charter and took note of the Universal Declaration, and condemned racialism and colonialism in terms.

Belgrade, 1961

The first Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries met at Belgrade in September 1961, with twenty-five States, and founded the Non-Aligned Movement.

Non-alignment meant refusing to join either Cold War bloc, and the criteria for participation required an independent policy based on peaceful coexistence, support for national liberation movements, and abstention from military alliances or bilateral base agreements with the great powers.