
The United Nations debate regarding Portuguese colonial issue
Nov 5, 2018 | Papers, Publications

The United Nations debate regarding Portuguese colonial issue and the development of the idea of self-determination (1961-1975)
- Aurora Almada e Santos
- 2018
- Caderno de Estudos Africanos
- Issue 35
- 13-32
- Language: Portuguese
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/cea.2505
- ISSN: 2182-7400 (online)
Paper included in the thematic dossier “Da Resistência Colonial aos Desafios da Contemporaneidade: 40 anos de independência das colónias portuguesas” [From Colonial Resistance to Contemporary Challenges: 40 years of independence of Portuguese colonies], coordinated by Aurora Almada e Santos and Vasco Martins.
This text intends to approach the relationship between the United Nations and Portuguese government in the period between 1961 and 1975, in particular the debates regarding the Portuguese colonial issue. Self-determination was inscribed in the United Nations Charter as a generic and undefined concept, detached from the dispositions of dependent territories. Due to a long process of institutionalization, the idea gradually became the right of the colonized peoples to freely determine their own destiny. The United Nations intended that Portugal implement the concept of self-determination adopted by the organization to its colonized territories. The continuous analysis of the Portuguese colonial issue influenced the debate regarding self-determination, constraining the United Nations to introduce precisions in the idea, which nevertheless continued to have a controversial meaning.
Key words:
United Nations, Portuguese colonial issue, ideas, self-determination, independence, national liberation movements
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Online course of the NOVA FCSH Summer School that focuses on the history of the management of diamond mines and the mineworkers. A Global History
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Detalhes do Evento
Online course of the NOVA FCSH Summer School that focuses on the history of the management of diamond mines and the mineworkers.
A Global History of Diamond Mining
Teacher: Tijl Vanneste
Schedule: 4 to 12 August | 4 August, 8 to 11AM; following days, 8 to 10AM
Duration: 15h
Type: online
Goals:
Students will develop an understanding of the global history of diamond mining, particularly the management of the mines and the mineworkers. They will also be able to connect this history to the larger histories of slavery, colonialism, labour, technology and capitalism. Secondly, studying diamond mining allows for students to improve their skills in comparative history, and will expand their know-how on relating the present to the past. A number of issues that have been crucial in diamond mining are still extremely relevant today – child’s labour in dangerous circumstances, ecological damage, the mixing of private and state interests. Diamond mining offers an historical interpretation of these phenomena.
Summary programme:
- Session 1 – Introduction
- Session 2 – Diamonds from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century
- Session 3 – The History of Diamonds in Brazil
- Session 4 – The Discovery of Diamonds in Africa
- Session 5 – The De Beers empire
- Session 6 – Mining in the Post-Colonial World
- Session 7 – Ecological Concerns & Roundtable
The course will be taught in English
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(Segunda-feira) 8:00 am - 11:00 am
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Institute of Contemporary History — NOVA FCSH and Luís Krus Centre — Life-long Trainingclk.flv@fcsh.unl.pt Avenida de Berna, 26-C — 1069-061 Lisbon
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