The United Nations, the Italian Decolonization and the 1949 Bevin-Sforza Plan: A Victory for Neo-colonialism?

In 1948, the newly-born United Nations (UN) General Assembly was entrusted with the difficult task of making a final and binding recommendation in respect to the problem of Italian pre-fascist colonies (Libya, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland). Italy and Great Britain formulated the Bevin-Sforza Plan as a solution, but since the document embodied old colonial ideas of self-aggrandizement it represented an attempt to bypass one of the basic tenets of the UN Charter: the principle of self-determination. In fact, because it was so heavily influenced by concerns about Cold War politics and national prestige, the Bevin-Sforza Plan ignored the wishes and interests of the native populations. The UN finally rejected the agreement, demonstrating the effectiveness of the General Assembly in upholding the UN principles. What happened afterwards, unfortunately, showed the total ineffectiveness of the Chapters XI and XII of the Charter. These could not stop self-interested British manipulations in Libya and Ethiopia’s emerging territorial claims that ignored the Eritrean people’s right to self-determination, nor could prevent the disasters of the ten-years-long Italian trusteeship in Somaliland. Somehow the old logic of politics resurfaced once again