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      Socialist Internationalism and Decolonizing Moralities in the UN Anti-Trafficking Regime, 1947–1954

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          Abstract

          In the late 1940s, state socialist governments proclaimed that commercial sex did not exist under socialism. At the same time, they were enthusiastic participants in the drafting of a new UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. This article explores state socialist involvement in the global moral reform drive accompanying the 1949 Convention. It traces the ideological coherence between Socialist Bloc and ‘Western’ delegations on the desirability of prostitution’s abolition. Conversely, it highlights splits on issues of jurisdiction, manifesting in the Soviet call for the eradication of the draft Convention’s ‘colonial clause’, which allowed states to adhere to or withdraw from international instruments on behalf of ‘non-self-governing territories’. We argue that critiques of the colonial clause discursively stitched together global moral reform and opposition to imperialism, according socialist and newly decolonized delegations an ideological win in the early Cold War.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d’histoire du droit international
          J. Hist. Int. Law
          Brill
          1388-199X
          1571-8050
          June 27 2019
          June 27 2019
          : 21
          : 2
          : 212-238
          Affiliations
          [1 ]University of Erfurt
          [2 ]School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
          Article
          10.1163/15718050-12340112
          def17e3d-3b39-4e54-a573-f327afa6103d
          © 2019
          History

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