This panel explores how imperial tensions and decolonization shaped the early work of the UN with long term implications for the way that the international organization defined its mandate and authority to protect vulnerable populations. The three papers all focus on France and the French empire, a rich case study given France’s position as a permanent founding member of the UN, its historical claims to promote and advance human rights, and its concerted efforts to stem the tide of decolonization in its colonial holdings after 1945. Each presentation explores how France’s conflicting ambitions shaped, defined or curtailed the UN’s policies and purview in the decades immediately following World War II. Yan Slobodkin will begin by examining the UN’s response to famine in Indochina at the end of World War II, with particular attention to the ways that the French tried to deflect UN intervention in order to get the credit for famine relief. Elizabeth Heath’s paper explores how French concerns about controlling intra and inter-imperial labor flows, especially from West and North Africa, influenced the way the UN ultimately defined and limited the category of refugee in the 1951 Refugee Convention. Emily Fransee will present on the Trusteeship Council and the Commission on the Status of Women in the 1950s, focusing on the connection between discussion of anti-colonial nationalism, gendered imperial citizenship reform, and the Cold War. The panel will conclude with a comment by Jessica Pearson who has written extensively on the UN and global health in the French imperial context.