Where were the women?

It’s been 70 years since the Bandung Conference brought leaders of Asian and African countries together in a collective effort to forefront anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggles.

- BY PRIYANTHI FERNANDO

Twenty-nine Asian and African countries attended and the 1955 conference symbolised a ‘new spirit of solidarity of the Third World’ . The conference underscored two principles of Third World politics — decolonisation and development — and led to the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and an alternative conversation on how the world should be ordered including a proposal for a New International Economic Order (NIEO).

It was a time when Sri Lanka punched significantly above her weight — Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike was an acknowledged leader of NAM, Dr Gamani Corea pushed for more favourable trade terms for the global south from his position as the Secretary of UNCTAD, and Ambassador Shirley Amerasinghe pushed against international competition to acquire the resources of the sea bed and was a key player in the International Law of the Sea conferences. It was a time when the themes of the Bandung conference, economic cooperation, respect for fundamental human rights and the principles of the UN Charter, promotion of world peace and recognition of the equality of all races and the equality of all nations large and small, framed the discussions between nations.

Today we live in a world that is experiencing economic, ecological and geo-political crises, and where the above themes of Bandung have been sidelined if not completely obliterated. Many global south countries are deeply entrenched in debt, world peace is wilfully ignored, and genocidal actions and structural violence proliferate from Burma to Palestine. It is also a world in which limiting global warming to 1.5° Celsius is no longer possible and the consequences of climate change presents an existential crisis. It is a time where the revival of the “Bandung spirit” should provide a resonance that can inspire and inform the foreign policies and international relations of small states like Sri Lanka.