The Human Rights Dictatorship

Reaching Out to the Third World: East Germany’s Anti-Apartheid and Socialist Human Rights Campaign*

“…56 From 1968 to 1973, GDR's Third World agenda facilitated growing support within the UN for East German membership. 57 The SED regime actively supported the anti-Apartheid struggle and organised the printing of the ANC's main press organs Sechaba and ANC Speaks by the East German Erich Weinert publishing house. 58 The Federal Republic's reluctance to cut off economic and trade relations with the South African state in compliance with UN resolutions opened up the Bonn government to constant East German propaganda attacks.…”

Women's Rights as Human Rights after the End of History

“…67 From the perspective of socialist international lawyers such as Oeser, the quest for equality was inseparable from the construction of a strong state and the pursuit of self-determination. 68 This understanding of self-determination as inextricably linked to human rights -particularly economic, social and cultural rights -provided the basis for alliances between East European states and countries in the global South during the 1960s. These alliances were still salient when the UN launched its International Women's Year in 1975, acting upon a proposal put forward by the Women's International Democratic Federation soon after it regained UN consultative status as a non-governmental organisation.…”