Resolution adopted by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
E/CN.4/RES/2 (XXIII), 6 March 1967
The Commission on Human Rights,
Considering that the General Assembly by its resolution 2144 A (XXI), paragraph 12, invited the Commission to give urgent consideration to ways and means of improving the capacity of the United Nations to put a stop to violations of human rights wherever they may occur,
Having considered and examined the communication from the Secretary-General transmitting a letter from the Acting Chairman of the General Assembly's Special Committee on the Policies of Apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa (E/CN.4/935) together with its enclosures (A/AC.115/L.53, 73, 87, 106, 116, 123 and 181),
Deeply disturbed by the evidence in those documents of continuing torture and ill-treatment of persons in the Republic of South Africa who have been detained by the police or imprisoned for opposition to, or infringement of, apartheid laws,
Strongly deploring the continued flagrant violation of the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations by the Government of the Republic of South Africa and the actions of that Government which are contrary to international law and international morality,
Determined to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and desirous of an urgent and immediate stop of violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Republic of South Africa,
Having heard the statement of the Observer of the Republic of South Africa in connexion this question,
Noting with appreciation the proclamation of the General Assembly in its resolution 2142 (XXI) of the annual commemoration of the massacre of Sharpeville, 21 March, as International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,
1. Condemns the practices described and complained of in the above-cited documents as constituting a double injury against the victims of the inhuman policies of apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa, who are imprisoned or detained for opposing and violating those policies;
2. Requests the Secretary-General immediately to address, on behalf of the Commission, a telegram to the Government of the Republic of South Africa conveying the deep distress and serious concern of the Commission at this situation and requesting that Government to take positive action so that its treatment of political prisoners shall conform with civilized standards of penal law and practice;
3. Decides to establish, in accordance with resolution 9 (II) of 21 June 1946 of the Economic and Social Council, and ad hoc working group of experts composed of eminent jurists and prison officials to be appointed by the Chairman of the Commission to:
4. Calls upon the Government of the Republic of South Africa to cooperate with the ad hoc working group of experts, providing it with the necessary facilities for the discharge of its task within South Africa;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to give the widest possible publicity, as soon as possible, to the documents received from the Acting Chairman of the Special Committee containing the testimony of political prisoners, victims of torture and ill-treatment in the prisons of South Africa, as well as the statements of Nelson Mandela and Abram Fischer in their recent court trials in South Africa;
6. Calls upon all Member States of the United Nations to give the widest national publicity, through all available information media, to the substance of the contents of these documents;
7. Draws attention of all international humanitarian organizations to these documents and calls to them to take, as a matter of urgency, any appropriate action in their power to help alleviate the inhuman situation described therein;
8. Appeals to all Member States, governmental, non-governmental and private organizations, as well as private individuals, to support the United Nations Trust Fund for South Africa through financial and other aids;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to circulate this resolution to the members of the Security Council;
10. Further requests the Secretary-General to convey to the Special Committee on the Policies of Apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa the desire of the Commission on Human Rights to maintain close collaboration with it in achieving their common objectives;
11. Requests its Chairman to maintain contact with the Secretary-General and to report before the end of the present session the progress of the implementation of this resolution;
12. Recommends that the Secretary-General in consultation with Member States, arrange to provide facilities whereby Registers for the receipt of contributions from all sources, private and public, for the victims of the polices of apartheid and racism in South Africa may be opened in each country;
13. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly, the degree of cooperation he has received from the various Member States;
14. Decides to review the situation at its twenty-fourth session.
Paper by Mr. Achkar Marof, Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid, "The crisis in southern Africa with special reference to South Africa and measures to be taken by the international community", presented to the International Seminar on Apartheid, Racial Discrimination and Colonialism in Southern Africa, held in Kitwe, Zambia, from 25 July to 4 August 1967.
A/6818, 29 September 1967
The situation in southern Africa
11. I need hardly elaborate on the situation in southern Africa, as it is described in grim detail in numerous documents of the United Nations and will be dealt with in several papers of the Seminar. I will merely draw attention to a few main aspects of this situation.
12. First, the situation in southern Africa today is not only intolerable for the oppressed peoples of that area, but constitutes a grave threat to international peace and security. There are already raging deadly wars in Mozambique and Angola where the forces of liberation are confronting colonial armies whose strength and whose equipment, obtained from NATO, are an indication of their intention to crush all resistance. Numerous incidents in southern Rhodesia, South West Africa and South Africa point to the determination of the peoples of these countries to secure their liberation at all cost. If these incidents have not yet developed into large-scale combat, and the massive military forces of the racist régimes seen to be able to maintain control, that should not lead to miscalculations. The rulers of South Africa, who have increased their military budget sixfold since 1960, know and admit by their acts, which are even more eloquent than their words, the existence of an explosive situation. The history of liberation of colonial peoples in recent decades shows that the people will find ways to overcome reverses, to regroup and resist even the mightiest of the armies of the oppressors and win the battle of liberation.
13. Second, a violent conflict in southern Africa cannot remain local but is bound to have grave international repercussions. It will undermine the efforts of African States to build non-racial societies and will damage prospects of international co-operation, an essential factor for peace and progress in the world. African and other States will inevitably be forced to intervene in various ways according to the needs of the African and Asian masses of South Africa. There is also reason to fear that certain Western Powers and other Powers which have been collaborating with the racist-colonialist forces face strong pressures by vested interests to induce them to intervene in one way or another against the liberation force on the fallaciously humanitarian pretence of protecting their nationals or economic interests.
14. Third, it must be recalled that the responsibility for the constant deterioration of the situation in southern Africa rests largely with the Western Powers which have always resisted all effective international measures which have been suggested to solve the problem. There is doubt that the consensus which has developed in the United Nations against apartheid and colonialism remains rather hollow so long as meaningful action is not taken. The Western Powers (and Japan) bear a special responsibility for the serious crisis of southern Africa because of the dependence of the racist and colonial régimes in southern Africa on continued economic relations with them. The co-operation of these Powers is indispensable for the imposition and implementation of international economic sanctions which remain the only peaceful means for a solution. These Powers, however, have greatly increased their economic involvement in this area. Even the arms embargo, a very first step which they ostensibly supported, has not had much effect because of contravention by some Powers, such as France, loop-holes in the embargoes by others and open co-operation lent by several Powers toward the development of an arms industry inside South Africa. In these circumstances, it is essential to conclude that the only peaceful solution, which could have been achieved by mandatory economic sanctions, has become increasingly utopian and unrealizable.
15. Fourth, among the forces which play the inglorious role of resisting the liberation of southern Africa, a prominent place is occupied by the numerous international corporations which have become involved in the area in the search for quick and exorbitant profits. They assist the racist and colonial régimes by loans and investments. They help develop arms and strategic industries to enable these régimes to resist sanctions. They help build oil refineries in the area in order to circumvent the oil embargo against the régime in southern Rhodesia.
16. Beneath the "unholy alliance", there is the giant economic complex, the "Cape to Katanga axis", which dominates the entire area. The big corporations of South Africa play a prominent role in this axis and international corporations participate in it, to a great extent, through subsidiaries and affiliates in South Africa.
17. Fifth, the continuance of the reign of apartheid and terror in South Africa, where the racist régime utilizes the country's immense wealth for military and political efforts to perpetuate racism constitutes the bulwark of reaction in the whole of southern Africa. The Pretoria régime is now openly challenging the United Nations all over southern Africa. It is illusory to expect that there can be substantial progress of liberation in that area so long as the South African régime is not neutralized. As I stated at the last session of the General Assembly:
"The South African régime has been the main source of support for the Ian Smith clique in Southern Rhodesia and the principal obstacle to the implementation of the resolutions of the Security Council. It is in open rebellion against the United Nations in South West Africa. It has increasingly collaborated with the Portuguese colonialists who are carrying on colonial wars in Mozambique, Angola and so-called Portuguese Guinea. The sovereignty and independence of Lesotho and Botswana are threatened by the existence of this racist régime in South Africa.
"There is a theory in some quarters that, in considering the liberation of southern Africa, South Africa should come last. According to the theory, we should deal first with southern Rhodesia and the Portuguese territories and give full attention to the problems of South Africa only after these territories are liberated. This theory, which superficially seems sound on geographical and logistical grounds, is misleading. So long as the régime in South Africa is secure, and feels itself to be secure, it would be idle to expect the liberation of other territories in southern Africa. The Pretoria régime has made it clear that it would sustain the Smith régime, whatever the next step in the United Nations. South Africa has also proclaimed that it will lend its support to the Portuguese colonialists in their war against the liberation movements. And in South West Africa, the United Nations and the liberation movements will face the full might of the Pretoria régime, which has been aided by the Powers of Western Europe and North America. When it threatens war against the United Nations if the United Nations seeks to fulfil its obligations to the people of South West Africa, its threats are backed by the planes, ships and guns supplied by the United Kingdom, United States, France and Italy.
"Of course, as I said recently, the war for South Africa has started in Angola and Mozambique and will soon move on to Southern Rhodesia, heading irresistibly towards Cape Town. This does not preclude the possibility of an explosion with South Africa itself, making easier the liberation of the whole of Southern Africa."
Measures to be taken by the international community
18. The Seminar has been convened in the hope that it will thoroughly examine and reassess the situation in southern Africa, and formulate proposals for further action by the international community.
19. Before dealing with the possible measures, it may be useful to refer briefly to certain general considerations.
20. Some circles abroad, and even a handful of people in Africa, are over-awed by the ostensible military strength of the régimes in South Africa and southern Rhodesia, and the military forces that Portugal has been able to mobilize for its colonial wars. They argue that these régimes cannot be overthrown. They consequently propose the search for a solution through the grant of meagre concessions, which are in any case dictated by the economic development needs of these racist bastions and the determination of the racists to have it believed that they have succeeded in breaking the political and diplomatic ostracism to which they are subjected by establishing relations with some African States which are, for various reasons, submissive to them.
21. The Seminar will no doubt take account of the military aspect, but there is little need to try to refute these defeatists. It is quickly forgotten that mightier nations have been defeated by forces of liberation in colonial wars of an unprecedented barbarism in this generation. Moreover, the apparent strength of the racial and colonial régimes is built on insecure foundations of oppression of the great majority: it can make the struggle bloodier but can never achieve the final victory.
22. On the other hand, it should be recalled that the main role in the liberation of southern Africa should rightfully go first to the oppressed people themselves. The international community can assist them and help create the conditions in which they can secure the liberation with the least possible violence and delay, but it cannot aspire to deliver liberation to them. The efforts of the international community should only complement the efforts of the oppressed peoples. As I stated in my address to the European Conference against Apartheid in Paris on 6 May 1967:
"The struggle for freedom in South Africa is certainly the right, the responsibility and the privilege of the people of South Africa. They have not abdicated their struggle or asked for freedom as a gift from the rest of the world. Whatever we do at the international level - whether governments or in anti-apartheid movements and other popular organizations - we need to recognize in all humility that our role is but secondary. We do not aspire to liberate - which would be tantamount to substituting ourselves to the South African people - but to assist the liberation, as that is our duty if we are loyal to our own convictions. We can discharge this duty only if we avoid any pity or paternalism and remain at all times responsible to the needs and desires of the liberation movement."
23. Frustrated and apathetic, the liberals abroad do not believe any more in the illusion that liberation in southern Africa would be achieved by painless efforts of persuasion of the oppressors and that the international opinion would be decisive. It is essential to recognize that popular revolutions take their time, face reverses and even lose battles but will ultimately succeed. The international community cannot formulate the methods of the liberation struggle or determine its timetable. Perseverance and determination are essential if it is to play a helpful role.
24. Third, while the United Nations can play a significant role in the international field, its role is not exclusive. States individually, as well as collectively through the Organization of African Unity and other inter-governmental organizations, can make additional contributions. Non-governmental organizations of various sectors of public opinion can also play an important role. It is essential to co-ordinate these efforts in order to promote maximum effectiveness or the totality of international effort. The Special Committee on Apartheid, in proposing an international campaign against apartheid, therefore, suggested a many-sided effort to mobilize these forces in order to help eradicate apartheid.
25. The efforts in the United Nations on the problems of apartheid, racial discrimination and colonialism in southern Africa have so far been directed on several fronts:
(a) The political isolation of the racist and colonial régimes, and the imposition of universal economic sanctions against them, has been the primary objective of these efforts. These efforts have apparently been effective in terms of overwhelming votes for condemnation of apartheid and colonialism, for a total arms embargo against South Africa, for a limited arms embargo against Portugal and for selective mandatory sanctions against Southern Rhodesia. But the progress has been largely illusory, as recommendations for sanctions have not been accepted or implemented by the main trading partners of the racist and colonial régimes which have, in fact, increased their collaboration and more than nullified the effect of boycotts instituted by other States at substantial sacrifice.
(b) Exposure of collaboration by States with the racist and colonial régimes, and of the activities of foreign economic and other interests which support these régimes.
(The activities of foreign economic and other interests in colonial territories will be on the agenda of the twenty-second session of the General Assembly in 1967.)
(c) Dissemination of information on the situation in southern Africa in order to counteract the propaganda of the racist and colonial régimes, and encourage world public opinion to support international efforts toward a solution of the problems. Encouragement to anti-apartheid movements and other non-governmental organizations to play a more effective role in opposition to racism and colonialism.
(d) Humanitarian assistance to the victims of apartheid and colonialism.
26. The establishment of the United Nations Trust Fund for South Africa, the support to voluntary organizations such as the International Defence and Aid Fund for southern Africa, provision of relief to refugees from South Africa, and colonial territories and special educational and training programmes for inhabitants of these territories fall in this category.
27. The Seminar will no doubt discuss the progress made on all these measures which have been taken, draw up a balance-sheet and consider means by which they can be made more effective.
28. It has become increasingly evident, however, that a reassessment is essential and that the focus of international effort should be reconsidered. While universal economic sanctions remain the most appropriate peaceful measures under the United Nations Charter for a solution of the problems, and pressure for such sanctions should continue, it is unrealistic to ignore the fact that the main trading partners of southern Africa including three permanent members of the Security Council, are unwilling to implement these measures (except to a limited extent in the case of Southern Rhodesia where the measures are ineffective because of the refusal to take any action against violations by South Africa and Portugal).
29. The attitude of these Powers, despite numerous appeals by an overwhelming majority of States, has largely paralysed the United Nations with respect to southern Africa. It leaves violence as the only alternative. The liberation movements, for their part, have decided on a violent struggle as the only means of salvation left to them by their oppressors and a certain international conspiracy.
30. As I stated recently in the Special Committee on Apartheid, there is developing a new trend of thinking about the focus of international effort:
"The future is likely to be difficult as the apartheid régime, taking advantage of the inaction of various Powers concerned, is launching a counter-offensive against African liberation - making use of its economic and military power...
"For the last two decades, the anti-apartheid movements were largely on the humanitarian level, exposing to the public opinion in their countries the inhumanity of apartheid and seeking to mobilize public opinion to exercise its influence on South Africa and on various governments to reverse the trend of increasing racism.
"These efforts have not succeeded for reasons which are well-know to this Committee. Today, the people of South Africa and of southern Africa as a whole are forced to embark on efforts to overthrow the racist régime by force and establish non-racial societies.
"It is no more sufficient for the world to sympathize with the victims of apartheid. We can no more speak in the United Nations, as was done before, of persuading the South African régime to abandon apartheid or dissuading it from racialism. That has proved to be impossible. We need to encourage world opinion to support democratic changes in South Africa and a reconstruction of its society by a revolutionary process. The role of the United Nations and of world opinion has to become more positive.
"The liberation of South Africa will have to be achieved by the people of South Africa. But they should be able to count on the support and solidarity of the rest of the world."
31. A beginning has already been made in the United Nations. The General Assembly of the United Nations has recognized - in resolutions 2189 (XX) and 2202 (XX), for instance, that the struggle of the peoples under colonial rule, and under the régime of apartheid. to exercise their right to independence and equality is a legitimate struggle and that all States should provide moral and material assistance to the liberation movements. This question of aid to the liberation movements should be thoroughly discussed at the Seminar with a view to the adoption of concrete recommendations.
32. It is hoped that the Seminar will bring forth an unequivocal declaration recognizing the legitimacy of the struggle for liberation and the duty of the international community to support that struggle and that it will formulate concrete proposals to encourage and enable the international community to provide the most effective assistance to that struggle.
Statement by Mr. Sverker C. Astrom (Sweden), Chairman of the Committee of Trustees of the United Nations Trust Fund for South Africa, in the Special Political Committee of the General Assembly.
A/SPC/PV.563, 9 November 1967
With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I should like to draw the attention of the members of the Committee to the report of the Committee of Trustees for help to the victims of apartheid (A/6873). I shall be very brief and I shall not go into details which are already stated in the report.
First of all, on behalf of the Committee of Trustees, I wish to express our sincere appreciation of the generous contributions to the Trust Fund from Governments and others during the past year... The need for financial support of the victims of apartheid in South Africa continues to be great and it is the hope of the Committee of Trustees that new substantial contributions will be forthcoming. May I say also that the Committee of Trustees has been gratified to note the expressions of support from the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights, the Organization of African Unity and many others.
It should perhaps be recalled that the Trust Fund is concerned exclusively with humanitarian work. Under the terms of reference given in resolution 2054 B (XX), its activities include provision of funds for legal aid to persons on trial in South Africa for acts arising from opposition to apartheid, relief for dependents of persecuted persons, education of prisoners and their dependents and relief for refugees from South Africa. In adopting this resolution in 1965 the General Assembly recognized almost unanimously that humanitarian assistance of this nature is appropriate and worthy of support and encouragement.
The Committee of Trustees, may I mention in passing, has five members, nominated on an individual basis by the five Member States chosen by the General Assembly. Due regard was taken of the principle of a just geographical distribution within the limitations imposed by the Committee's membership. The Committee has been entrusted with an important and delicate task, and its members are deeply aware of their responsibility to ensure that contributions to the Trust Fund are utilized strictly for the purposes indicated by the General Assembly.
As appears from the first report of the Committee of Trustees in 1966 (A/6494), the Committee has followed the practice of deciding in principle to recognize certain voluntary organizations as possible recipients of grants after taking into account their sponsorship, their performance with regard to relief and assistance in South Africa, and their accounting and other procedures. Before accepting an organization as recipient, the Committee has requested it to make the following commitments:
"(a) To use the grants for the purpose indicated by the Committee of Trustees in the light of the provisions of operative paragraph 2 of General Assembly resolution 2054 B (XX);
"(b) To report to the Committee of Trustees on the use of the grants; and
"(c) To provide such financial statements as the United Nations Secretary-General and the Board of Auditors may require in order to satisfy the provisions of the Financial Regulations of the United Nations relating to financial review and external audit of Trust Fund operations."
I wish to say that the Trustees feel that, through this procedure, they have done everything possible in order to ensure that the grants given are being used for the purposes stipulated by the Committee in each case, under the overall mandate decided upon by the General Assembly.
Members of this Committee are aware that work in this field has been made difficult by the attitude of the South African Government. Organizations engaged in assistance to the victims of apartheid have been subjected to various pressures and administrative measures. The Committee of Trustees feels that its work in supporting the humanitarian activities of voluntary organizations should be conducted in such a way, with regard to publicity, etc., that it is not rendered more difficult.
May I be allowed to recall here that members of the General Assembly and, I may add, the Special Committee on Apartheid have recognized that this humanitarian work should be kept distinct from the political and other measures taken by the General Assembly with regard to the political problems in South Africa.
In this context I would like to stress again that the Committee of Trustees
has been constantly aware that its work cannot, and is not intended to,
resolve the political and social problems with which other organs of the
United Nations are concerned. Its purpose is to meet a limited, albeit
urgent, humanitarian need. There is no doubt, however, that if assistance
is given to the victims of apartheid by the joint efforts of the international
community, this provides moral support to all those, inside or outside
South Africa, who work for racial equality and social justice. As I had
occasion to state last year in this Committee, it is important that this
bond of human solidarity be preserved.
"The present stage of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa": paper prepared by Mr. Oliver Tambo, acting President-General of the African National Congress of South Africa, at the request of the Special Committee against Apartheid.
A/AC.115/L.222, 2 July 1968
Twenty years ago last month, a minority of the white minority in South Africa, steeped in the doctrines Hitler sought to impose by force on mankind, seized political power from another section of the white minority and immediately embarked on a vicious offensive against basic human rights. Later that year, the accredited representatives of the world`s Governments, filled with the horror of Nazism and fascism, assembled at the United Nations and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Thus the year 1948 witnessed the crystallisation of two opposing forces: the one, resting on an international base, seeking to advance human rights in all parts of the world and the other, aiming at a studied destruction of human rights for all black people, and spearheaded by a clique of white-skinned men and women in South Africa.
It is fair to say that both forces have made great
strides since that eventful year. On the one hand, hundreds of millions of people spread over Africa, Asia and the Caribbean Islands have won their independence and regained their human dignity. A new Africa is being built on the ruins of a colonial era, and a once dominated, oppressed and humiliated two-thirds of the world now forms an integral and acknowledged part of the international community of peoples. This is an indisputable triumph of the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
On the other hand, the bonds of bondage that bound millions of black people in South Africa twenty years ago have since been tightened to the absolute limit, the screws of oppression and exploitation have been driven in without mercy and racial discrimination permeates every sphere of South African life. Basic freedoms, few and far between in 1948, have been ruthlessly whittled away until today there are none worth mentioning. This, also, is an indisputable achievement for the doctrines of baaskap, superiority of the white skin and colonial domination, and is the more sinister because victory for reactionary forces is by definition the defeat of the forces for progress.
These achievements of twenty years of effort in two opposite directions lend special significance to the International Year for Human Rights proclaimed by the General Assembly and underscore the historic importance which the African National Congress of South Africa, together with its allies and sister political organizations and all genuine opponents of Nazism, attach to General Assembly resolution 2307(XXII) adopted on 13 December 1967, authorising the Special Committee on the Policies of Apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa "to intensify its efforts to promote the international campaign against apartheid".
In view of the oft-repeated claim by the fascist Government of South Africa that there is peace and calm in that country, and by the big Western Powers that the situation in South Africa in no way constitutes a threat to international peace and security - claims persisted in despite constant warnings not only by the liberation movement in South Africa but also by the vast majority of United Nations Member States - it might be useful to refer to some of the developments in and around South Africa during the past five years.
Recent developments in South Africa
The South African delegate to the General Assembly in 1963 presented South Africa as an island of peace in a turbulent world, with great strides being made not only in the general welfare of what are contemptuously termed "Bantu" but also in the direction of "Bantu self-government", the Transkei being cited as an example of guided progress towards independence.
Since then, however, the racist regime has had to present the world with the barbarous 90-day and 180-day detention acts invoked to legalise police torture and secret murder, in a desperate bid to suppress the liberation movement; there have been more political hangings and life imprisonments, as well as the greatest number of long-term political prisoners than during any corresponding period in the twenty years of fascist rule in South Africa; the State of Emergency in the Transkei, first proclaimed in 1960, is still in force in this so-called self-governing territory; the much-publicised policy of creating more bantustans in South Africa has ground to a halt in the face of the stubborn resistance of the people; to the unprecedented collection of draconian laws that besmirch the South African statute book, and despite the notorious "Sabotage Act", there has now been added the infamous Terrorism Act.
These measures are not consistent with the prevalence of a state of cordial relations between a white master and his black servant. Nor are they adopted merely to maintain a status quo ante or destroy a subversive liberation movement. They seek to contain a swelling tide of revolution and revolt by the masses of the people against the entire system represented by white racist minority rule. These measures are as inevitable in the short term as they are valueless and even disastrous in the long term - inevitable because those who set out to reverse the course of human history and change the basic nature of living man must need resort to methods that are increasingly offensive and intolerable to man; valueless because these methods must fail and are failing; disastrous because by their racialist orientation, purpose and brutality, their growing effect is to bedevil the future for the very white minority whose interests they purport to serve and protect.
Thus predictably, the logic of an economic policy founded on racial discrimination has forced the South African regime to further tighten the iniquitous Pass Laws by enacting legislation such as the Bantu Laws Amendment Act, more completely condemning the African population to the status of cheap migrant labour for white-owned industries. This law, the Suppression of Communism Act, the "Sabotage Act", the 90-day and 180-day detention laws, the Terrorism Act and numerous sections and sub-sections all combine to form a repressive umbrella under cover of which a reign of police terror has been unleashed and is sweeping through the towns and rural areas of South Africa. The people are being hunted and hounded out of their homes, from one segregated ghetto to another, deported from towns and cities to the countryside, and in the country subjected to house-to-house raids in the course of which weapons of every description are seized and confiscated. Intimidation and victimisation of opponents of apartheid has mounted.
In the meantime, the exploitation of people has become more ruthless as the economy flourishes in an unprecedented boom. While such diseases as tuberculosis are being eliminated among the whites in South Africa, they are taking a heavy toll of life among the Africans and other victims of white minority rule, and nowhere is this more evident than in the bantustan territory of the Transkei.
Armed struggle for freedom
It is these and similar conditions, inter alia, that are at once the cause and the effect of the escalating racial conflict between the ruling white minority and the ruled black majority in South Africa, and it is important to warn again and again that this escalation, born of a policy that is strictly inhuman, can only be accelerated, far from being slowed down, by lapse of time.
By the year 1961, it had reached a level which led the African National Congress and the oppressed population of South Africa to decide on armed struggle as the next phase of the fight for freedom. That decision which, it can now be said, will always constitute an important chapter in any analysis of the current political situation in the whole of southern Africa, was not taken lightly. The massive loss of life it entailed, the destruction of property, its implication for individual African independent States and for the peace and security of the whole of Africa and the world were not lost to the African National Congress and its leaders.
But no one familiar with the struggles of oppressed peoples against colonialism and racial discrimination, particularly in the period since World War II, no one conversant with the long struggle of the South African people, and no one who believes whole-heartedly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can seriously question the decision of the oppressed people of South Africa and their allies to embark on a national revolutionary armed struggle for freedom. For any who may still be in doubt, it is necessary only to refer to the countless resolutions condemning and demanding the abandonment of the policies of apartheid which have been adopted over a period of at least two decades by the United Nations, by its many committees and agencies, by individual Governments, organizations, conferences and groups of men and women in every quarter of the world; to the numerous times that the apartheid regime has ignored and defied these resolutions and appeals; to the mountains of documents and paperwork embodying studies revealing the horrors of white rule in South Africa, all of which make our freedom struggle one of the most thoroughly documented in history; finally, we need only refer to the sustained and mounting violence with which our peaceful and non-violent struggles were treated, including the series of massacres inflicted on our people when they sought, unarmed, the restoration of their human dignity.
Mahatma Gandhi, the great apostle of non-violence who founded and perfected his methods of struggle in South Africa, often said that he preferred violence to cowardice, and we may here recall the words of Chief Lutuli in 1964, from the isolation of Groutville, Natal, when he explained the new phase of the freedom struggle:
"However, in the face of an uncompromising white
refusal to abandon a policy which denies the African and other oppressed South Africans their rightful heritage - FREEDOM - no one can blame brave and just men for seeking justice by the use of violent methods; nor can they be blamed if they tried to create organized force in order ultimately to establish peace and racial harmony".
Conflict in southern Africa
There have been other developments in the past few years bearing directly on the struggle against apartheid. The attainment of independence by Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and Lesotho has occurred side by side with the implementation of an expansionist policy by the Pretoria regime, which has for its aim the establishment of an empire ruled over by the white master-race, and consisting of a large number of small black bantustans extending over the whole of southern Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Zambia refused to be part of this empire or to stoop to the status of a glorified bantustan. Instead she threw her weight behind the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe and the rest of southern Africa. This led the South African regime to strengthen its ties with the other members of the unholy alliance, particularly Rhodesia. Ian Smith admitted last year that if the South African Government had not given him assurances of support, he would not have proceeded with UDI. In fact South Africa can be expected to have encouraged UDI to ensure the existence of a neighbouring white minority regime to which she is now in the process of exporting apartheid.
The rest of the independent African States bordering on South Africa are faced with a choice between supporting the racist regime and supporting the liberation movement and little evidence of neutrality. The masses of the people throughout southern Africa remain totally opposed to white minority rule and fully support the struggle of their brothers in South Africa. The attempts by the South African racist regime to blackmail and bully neighbouring African governments into allying themselves with it is a mean and selfish move to involve these governments in a bloody defence of its inhuman policies in the same manner that it has driven 200,000 whites in Zimbabwe into an unequal war with 4,000,000 Africans.
With the growing scope and intensity of the struggle against the apartheid regime and other members of the unholy alliance of Vorster, Smith and Salazar, the pressure on neighbouring States to become actively involved increases, and the conflict progressively takes on the character of a confrontation between colonial and white minority rule on the one side, and on the other, the combined numerical might of the supporters of majority rule in southern Africa. In this sense the armed struggle against apartheid is the struggle against white minority rule everywhere, and has become inseparable from the struggle of the people of Zimbabwe as well as being an essential part of the struggle for freedom from Portuguese colonialism.
It is these factors, among others, which explain the alliance that has been forged between the African National Congress of South Africa and the Zimbabwe African People`s Union.
The armed struggle launched by these two liberation movements in Zimbabwe has exposed not only the deep involvement of the Pretoria regime in the internal affairs of Rhodesia, but also its sinister designs against African States. Already the South African Prime Minister has repeated wild threats against Zambia. These threats have been followed up by the derailment of trains in Zambia, the blowing up of a bus, the bombing of civilians and very recently the blowing up of an important bridge. The existence of an active unholy alliance of which Vorster is a key member makes it unimportant which member of the unholy alliance is responsible for the attacks.
It is clear therefore that even at this very early stage of the armed conflict the situation in southern Africa, precisely because it now directly involves South Africa, is beginning to have serious international repercussions. When the conflict springs up and spreads, as it soon must, over South African territory, the desperation of the apartheid regime can be expected to make itself felt in the rest of Africa. But let it be emphasised that having started the armed struggle, we shall pursue it with increasing ferocity until the monster of racism and exploitation has been completely destroyed. The probability of an international crisis resulting from our struggle will not deter us.
Vorster`s threats have been triggered off by the fact that already, the South African regime is paying heavily in blood for the crimes it has perpetrated against our people under its apartheid policies. Scores of South African troops have been killed by ZAPU-ANC guerillas in what are merely preliminary encounters in Rhodesia.
Isolate the South African regime
So far we have omitted reference to the role of foreign capital and other financial interests of Western countries in the South African situation. This question, however, has been thoroughly canvassed in statements, memoranda and reports now in the possession of the United Nations. What remains to be considered is action which must be taken to induce these countries to withdraw their support for the apartheid regime.
We in the African National Congress have always believed that the honourable task of freeing South Africa rested firmly with the people of South Africa themselves. The task of international organizations was to assist the liberation movement. This still remains the fundamental position of principle from which all international action should be appraised.
We have in the past insisted on sanctions being imposed on South Africa. We believe this demand is more valid now when the armed struggle is in progress than at any previous time. We interpret United Nations resolutions acknowledging the legitimacy of our struggle and calling for moral and material support for it as meaning, inter alia, that member governments should honour and carry out United Nations decisions on South Africa, including termination of trade links with that country. The least the United Nations can do is to enforce compliance with its resolutions by all member States and to consider appropriate action against those countries which undermine these decisions.
Trade with South Africa by Britain, France, West Germany, United States of America, Italy and Japan is no moral and material support for the liberation movement but a deliberate act designed to perpetuate a racist regime in southern Africa. As such, it is a gross violation of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Other international pressures have been enforced in the past. It would be absurd for these to be in any way reduced at a time the struggle of our people requires that they be considerably increased. The impression that South Africa has been totally unaffected by international pressures is one which the well-financed information service of that Government has spent millions to induce. It is a massive international whistling in the dark which South Africa must not be allowed to get away with. The recent hullabaloo over the exclusion of South Africa from the Mexico Olympic Games is an indication of how much the advocates of white supremacy feel international pressure. Therefore the demands for political, military, social and cultural isolation of the present regime remain valid and must be pursued with greater effort, organization and skill. Such pressures are now an important part of the armed struggle for the overthrow of apartheid by the people of South Africa and are a form of support for our people.
The South African Information Service has vast resources at its disposal and is supported by powerful lobbies in various key countries, through the radio, by means of glossy well-produced magazines distributed free, by means of films shown free whenever requested and, above all, by extolling an economy whose benefits are derived from the brutal exploitation of our people. It is essential that there should always be a world-wide campaign to win the masses of the people to the struggle for the complete eradication of racialism and apartheid.
Struggle will grow until victory
Any measures carried out by the international community are, however,
only supplementary to the efforts of the oppressed people and their allies.
The burden of conquering freedom is theirs. Our armed struggle begins,
as always in such struggles, with the oppressed people weak materially,
although powerful in the justice of their cause. But it will grow in strength
like the triumphant struggle of the great and heroic people of Vietnam.
Already in the armed clashes that have taken place, the white fascists
have taken a severe beating from the ZAPU-ANC guerillas. A worse fate awaits
them in the coming years. The price to be paid in South Africa and far
beyond its borders will be enormously high, but final victory will go to
the defenders of peace and human dignity.
General Assembly resolution: The policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa.
A/RES/2396 (XXIII), 2 December 1968
The General Assembly,
...
Noting with concern that the Government of South Africa continues to intensify and extend beyond the borders of South Africa its inhuman and aggressive policies of apartheid and that these policies have led to a violent conflict, creating a situation in the whole of southern Africa which constitutes a grave threat to international peace and security,
Recognizing that the policies and actions of the Government of South Africa constitute a serious obstacle to the exercise of the right of self-determination by the oppressed people of southern Africa,
Convinced that the international campaign against apartheid must be intensified urgently in order to assist in securing the elimination of these inhuman policies,
Considering that effective action for a solution of the situation in South Africa is imperative in order to eliminate the grave threat to the peace in southern Africa as a whole,
...
1. Reiterates its condemnation of the policies of apartheid practised by the Government of South Africa as a crime against humanity;
2. Condemns the Government of South Africa for its illegal occupation of Namibia and its military intervention and for its assistance to the racist minority regime in Southern Rhodesia in violation of United Nations resolutions;
3. Reaffirms the urgent necessity of eliminating the policies of apartheid so that the people of South Africa as a whole can exercise their right to self-determination and attain majority rule based on universal suffrage;
4. Draws the attention of the Security Council to the grave situation in South Africa and in southern Africa as a whole and requests the Council to resume urgently the consideration of the question of apartheid with a view to adopting, under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, effective measures to ensure the full implementation of comprehensive mandatory sanctions against South Africa;
5. Condemns the actions of those States, particularly the main trading partners of South Africa, and the activities of those foreign financial and other interests, all of which, through their political, economic and military collaboration with the Government of South Africa and contrary to the relevant General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, are encouraging that Government to persist in its racial policies;
6. Reaffirms its recognition of the legitimacy of the struggle of the people of South Africa for all human rights, and in particular political rights and fundamental freedoms for all the people of South Africa irrespective of race, colour or creed;
7. Calls upon all States and organizations to provide greater moral, political and material assistance to the South African liberation movement in its legitimate struggle;
8. Expresses its grave concern over the ruthless persecution of opponents of apartheid under arbitrary laws and the treatment of freedom fighters who were taken prisoner during the legitimate struggle for liberation, and:
(a) Condemns the Government of South Africa for its cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of political prisoners;
(b) Calls once again for the release of all persons imprisoned or restricted for their opposition to apartheid and appeals to all Governments, organizations and individuals to intensify their efforts in order to induce the Government of South Africa to release all such persons and to stop the persecution and ill-treatment of opponents of apartheid;
(c) Declares that such freedom fighters should be treated as prisoners of war under international law, particularly the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949;
(d) Requests the Secretary-General to establish and publicize as widely as possible:
(i) A register of persons who have been executed, imprisoned, placed under house arrest or banning orders or deported for their opposition to apartheid;
(ii) A register of all available information on acts of brutality committed by the Government of South Africa and its officials against opponents of apartheid in prisons;
9. Commends the activities of anti-apartheid movements and other organizations engaged in providing assistance to the victims of apartheid and in promoting their cause, and invites all States, organizations and individuals to make generous contributions in support of their endeavours;
10. Urges the Governments of all States to discourage in their territories, by legislative or other acts, all activities and organizations which support the policies of apartheid, as well as any propaganda in favour of the policies of apartheid and racial discrimination;
11. Requests all States to discourage the flow of immigrants, particularly skilled and technical personnel, to South Africa;
12. Requests all States and organizations to suspend cultural, educational, sporting and other exchanges with the racist regime and with organizations or institutions in South Africa which practise apartheid;
...
Manifesto on Southern Africa adopted by the Fifth Summit Conference of East and Central African States, Lusaka, 14-16 April 1969.
A/7754, 1969
1. When the purpose and the basis of States' international policies are misunderstood, there is introduced into the world a new and unnecessary disharmony, disagreements, conflicts of interest, or different assessments of human priorities, which provoke an excess of tension in the world, and disastrously divide mankind, at a time when united action is necessary to control modern technology and put it to the service of man. It is for this reason that, discovering widespread misapprehension of our attitudes and purposes in relation to Southern Africa, we the leaders of East and Central African States meeting at Lusaka, 16th April 1969, have agreed to issue this Manifesto.
2. By this Manifesto we which to make clear, beyond all shadow of doubt, our acceptance of the belief that all men are equal, and have equal rights to human dignity and respect, regardless of colour, race, religion or sex. We believe that all men have the right and the duty to participate, as equal members of the society, in their own government. We do not accept that any individual or group has any right to govern any other group of sane adults, without their consent, and we affirm that only the people of a society, acting together as equals, can determine what is, for them, a good society and a good social, economic, or political organisation.
3. On the basis of these beliefs we do not accept that any one group within a society has the right to rule any society without the continuing consent of all the citizens. We recognise that at any one time there will be, within every society, failures in the implementation of these ideals. We recognise that for the sake of order in human affairs, there may be transitional arrangements while a transformation from group inequalities to individual equality is being effected. But we affirm that without an acceptance of these ideals - without a commitment to these principles of human equality and self-determination - there can be no basis for peace and justice in the world.
4. None of us would claim that within our own States we have achieved that perfect social, economic and political organisation which would ensure a reasonable standard of living for all our people and establish individual security against avoidable hardship or miscarriage of justice. On the contrary, we acknowledge that within our own States the struggle towards human brotherhood and unchallenged human dignity is only beginning. It is on the basis of our commitment to human equality and human dignity, not on the basis of achieved perfection, that we take our stand of hostility towards the colonialism and racial discrimination which is being practised in Southern Africa. It is on the basis of their commitment to these universal principles that we appeal to other members of the human of the human race for support.
5. If the commitment to these principles existed among the States holding power in Souther Africa, any disagreements we might have about the rate of implementation, or about isolated acts of policy, would be matters affecting only our individual relationships with the States concerned. If these commitments existed, our States would not be justified in the expressed and active hostility towards the regimes of Southern Africa such as we have proclaimed and continue to propagate.
6. The truth is, however, that in Mozambique, Angola, Rhodesia, South-West Africa, and the Union of South Africa, there is an open and continued denial of the principles of human equality and national self-determination. This is not a matter of failure in the implementation of accepted human principles. The effective Administration in all these territories are not struggling towards these difficult goals. They are fighting the principles; they are deliberately organising their societies so as to try to destroy the hold of these principles in the minds of men. It is for this reason that we believe the rest of the world must be interested. For the principle of human equality, and all that flows from it, is either universal or it does not exist. The dignity of all men is destroyed when the manhood of any human being is denied.
7. Our objectives in Southern Africa stem from our commitment to this principle of human equality. We are not hostile to the Administrations of these States because they are manned and controlled by white people. We are hostile to them because they are systems of minority control which exist as a result of, and in the pursuance of, doctrines of human inequality. What we are working for is the right of self-determination for the people of those territories. We are working for a rule in those countries which is based on the will of all the people, and an acceptance of the equality of every citizen.
8. Our stand towards Southern Africa thus involves a rejection of racialism, not a reversal of the existing racial domination. We believe that all the peoples who have made their homes in the countries of Southern Africa are Africans, regardless of the colour of their skins; and we would oppose a racialist majority government which adopted a philosophy of deliberate and permanent discrimination between its citizens on grounds of racial origin. We are not talking racialism when we reject the colonialism and apartheid policies now operating in those areas; we are demanding and opportunity for all the people of these States, working together as equal individual citizens, to work out for themselves the institutions and the system of government under which they will, by general consent, live together and work together to build a harmonious society.
9. As an aftermath of the present policies it is likely that different groups within these societies will be self-conscious and fearful. The initial political and economic organisations may well take account of these fears, and this group self-consciousness. But how this is to be done must be a mater exclusively for the peoples of the country concerned, working together. No other nation will have a right to interfere in such affairs. All that the rest of the world has a right to demand is just what we are now asserting - that the arrangements within any State which wishes to be accepted into the community of nations must be based on an acceptance of the principles of human dignity and equality.
10. To talk of the liberation of Africa is thus to say two things. First, that the people in the territories still under colonial rule shall be free to determine for themselves their own institutions of self-government. Secondly, that the individuals in Souther Africa shall be freed from an environment posed by the propaganda of racialism, and given an opportunity to be men - not white men, brown men, yellow men, or black men.
11. Thus the liberation of Africa - for which we are struggling - does not mean a reverse racialism. ...
12. On the objective of liberation as thus defined, we can neither surrender nor compromise. We have always preferred, and we still prefer, to achieve it without physical violence. We would prefer to negotiate rather than destroy, to talk rather than kill. We do not advocate violence; we advocate an end to the violence against human dignity which is now being perpetrated by the oppressors of Africa. If peaceful progress to emancipation were possible, or if changed circumstances were to make it possible in the future, we would urge our brothers in the resistance movements to use peaceful methods of struggle even at the cost of some compromise on the timing of change. But while peaceful progress is blocked by actions of those at present in power in the States of Southern Africa, we have no choice but to give to the peoples of those territories all the support of which we are capable in their struggle against their oppressors. This is why the signatory states participate in the movement for the liberation of Africa under the aegis of the Organisation of African Unity. However, the obstacle to change is not the same in all the countries of Southern Africa, and it follows therefore, that the possibility of continuing the struggle through peaceful means varies from one country to another. ...
The Union of South Africa is itself an independent sovereign State and a Member of the United Nations. It is more highly developed and richer than any other nation in Africa. On every legal basis its internal affairs are a matter exclusively for the people of South Africa. Yet the purpose of law is people and we assert that the assert that the actions of the South African Government are such that the rest of the world has a responsibility to take some action in defence of humanity.
There is one thing about South African oppression which distinguishes it from other oppressive regimes. The apartheid policy adopted by its Government, and supported to a greater or lesser extent by almost all its white citizens, is based on a rejection of man's humanity. A position of privilege or the experience of oppression in the South African society depends on the one thing which it is beyond the power of any man to change. It depends upon a man's colour, his parentage, and his ancestors. If you are black you cannot escape this categorization; nor can you escape it if you are white. If you are black millionaire and a brilliant political scientist, you are still subject to the pass laws and still excluded from political activity. If you are white, even protests against the system and an attempt to reject segregation, will lead you only to the segregation, and the comparative comfort of a white jail. Beliefs, abilities, and behaviour are all irrelevant to a man's status; everything depends upon race. Manhood is irrelevant. The whole system of government and society in South Africa is based on the denial of human equality. And the system is maintained by a ruthless denial of the human rights of the majority of the population - and thus, inevitably of all.
These things are known and are regularly condemned in the Councils of
the United Nations and elsewhere. But it appears that to many countries
international law take precedence over humanity. Therefore no action follows
the words. Yet even if international law is held to exclude active assistance
to the South African opponents of apartheid, it does not demand that the
comfort and support of human and commercial intercourse should be given
to a government which rejects the manhood of most humanity. South Africa
should be excluded from the United Nations' Agencies, and even from the
United Nations itself. It should be isolated from world trade patterns
and left to be self-sufficient, if it can. The South African Government
cannot be allowed both to reject the very concept of mankind's unity, and
to benefit by the strength given through friendly international relations.
And certainly Africa cannot acquiesce in the maintenance of the present
policies against people of African descent.
The signatories of this Manifesto assert that the validity of the principles of human equality and dignity extend to the Union of South Africa just as they extend to the colonial territories of Southern Africa. Before a basis for peaceful development can be established in this continent, these principles must be acknowledged by every action, and in every state there must be a deliberate attempt to implement them.
We reaffirm our commitment to these principles of human equality and human dignity, and to the doctrines of self-determination and non-racialism. We shall work for their extension within our own nations and throughout the continent of Africa.
Statement by Mr. Abdulrahim A. Farah (Somalia), Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid, at the Committee's 138th meeting, held on 24 June 1970.
A/AC.115/L.277, 25 June 1970
The statement of our distinguished rapporteur on the arms build-up in South Africa and on continued violations of the embargo by several western Powers reflects the serious and distressing nature of the two long-standing and gross violations of the United Nations Charter: the use of arms by the South African Government to deny people their fundamental human rights, and the equally unpardonable act of some States which involve themselves in arms trafficking n support of that regime and which put material gain ahead of the principles of international morality they are pledged to support.
In 1963 and 1964 when the Security Council adopted resolutions calling for the imposition of an arms embargo against the Government of South Africa, great hope was attached to the role which the four permanent members of the council had pledged themselves to play. We realized that if those four Powers lent their full co-operation, other States would follow their example and the embargo would have a considerable chance of succeeding.
The Soviet Union gave its unqualified support to the proposal. The United States pledged itself to "a policy forbidding the sale to the South African Government of arms ad military equipment, whether from Government or commercial sources, which could be used to enforce apartheid". The French delegation declared that its Government "would take all the steps they considered necessary to prevent the sale to the South African Government of weapons which could be used for purposes of repression". The British representative announced that it was the position of his Government "that no arms should be exported to South Africa which would enable the policy of apartheid to be enforced". He reserved the British position regarding the supply of equipment to South Africa for purposes of self-defence under Article 51 of the Charter.
Briefly, let us recount what has happened since the adoption of the arms embargo resolution. The Soviet Union is the only State that has discharged its responsibility fully. France has honoured the arms embargo more in the breach than in the observance and by its actions has encouraged several other western European States to break the embargo. Almost every report on the arms situation issued by this Committee since its inception has contained evidence of the supply of French arms and military equipment to South Africa in defiance of the Security Council resolution.
In all fairness to the United Kingdom and the United States we must state that considerable efforts have been made by those two States to honour their commitment, although at times we have had reason to point out discrepancies in their performance. These discrepancies arise from the extremely loose interpretation which they place on certain arms and military equipment as falling within the category of arms for external defence, and on arms contracts entered into before the arms embargo was instituted. It cannot be denied that arms and military equipment supplied ostensibly for purposes of external defence have been used extensively for internal security.
Yet despite these lapses, we must concede that the public commitment of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom to honour the arms embargo has had a restraining influence on the supply of arms to South Africa. The problem now is this: how can the Security Council persuade those few States who continue to supply arms to South Africa in defiance of the arms embargo to refrain from doing so, and how can we induce others to continue faithful compliance with the embargo. Whatever measures are adopted by the Security Council, the outcome in reality will depend on the action of the permanent members.
In recent weeks, and particularly since the elections in the United Kingdom, considerable speculation has been aroused about the attitude which the new Government is likely to adopt towards the arms embargo. Many of us have been alarmed at some statements, which have been attributed in the Press to leading personalities of the Conservative Party, about the stand they would take on the arms embargo against South Africa and on the type of relations they would wish to establish with the rebel regime of Ian Smith in Southern Rhodesia. On the other hand, we have noted the restraining influence which the new British Prime Minister -- the Right Honourable Edward Heath -- has tried to exercise on racist and other extremist groups within his country. We trust this to be a clear indication that the policies of his Government will in n way give in to racism. In our opinion it would be racism to reopen the flow of arms to South Africa, to assume a negative position in the international scene against the South African racist policies and to give some form of recognition to the racist régime in Salisbury.
Apart from the verbal condemnations of the policies of apartheid, and a hesitant and unconvincing response to the humanitarian needs of the situation, the arms embargo, for what it is worth, represents the only tangible measure taken by the international community to countermand the criminal and sustained aggression of the South African Government against the rights of the non-white people of South Africa.
Any weakening of the embargo will affect adversely not only the struggle of the oppressed in South Africa, but also the struggle of the populations of Southern Rhodesia, Namibia and the Portuguese-occupied territories of Angola and Mozambique. It is no secret that sanctions against Southern Rhodesia have been frustrated because of the open trade which South Africa freely conducts with the rebel régime. The extensive arms and military equipment which the South African Government has been able to procure from abroad, has enabled that Government to station its units on Southern Rhodesian territory, and its air force to carry out military reconnaissance and offensive operations against liberation movements in territories beyond the frontiers of South Africa. Should South Africa be permitted to increase its purchase of arms from abroad, or be provided with the means to increase its manufacture of them at home, the international community can be certain that those arms will find their way to the rebel régime of Southern Rhodesia further undermining the international commitment to sanctions.
This then is the position: I suggest for the consideration of this Committee
that in the light of evidence that has been collected over the years and
in consideration of new developments that are taking place, we ask that
the whole position be reviewed by the Security Council and that it take
measures to strengthen the embargo.
Statement by the President of the General Assembly, Mr. Edvard Hambro (Norway), concerning the credentials of the delegation of South Africa.
A/PV.1901, 11 November 1970
[(NOTE: This statement was made in reply to a question by the representative of Saudi Arabia as to the implications of the adoption of a proposal by a number of States that the General Assembly approve the report of the Credentials Committee "except with regard to the credentials of the representative of South Africa".)]
It is a very difficult question to answer now, but still, out of respect both for him and for the Assembly, I will try to give an answer. But I want to state in advance that answer is not a ruling of the President. I do not think that the President has the power to make a ruling which will give a legally binding interpretation of a resolution of this kind. But if the time should come, as it undoubtedly must, later in the Assembly where I have to make a ruling on the basis of what has happened here today I believe that my opinion would be the following.
After listening very carefully to this extremely important and at times passionate debate, after having read and reread several times the text of the amendment proposed, and after having studied very carefully the opinion given by may learned friend here on the rostrum, I reach the conclusion that a vote in favour of the amendment would mean, on the part of this Assembly, a very strong condemnation of the policies pursued by the Government of South Africa. It would also constitute a warning to that Government as solemn as any such warning could be. But that, apart from that, the amendment as it is worded at present would not seem to me to mean that he South African delegations unseated or cannot continue to sit in this Assembly; if adopted it will not affect the rights and privileges of membership of South Africa. That is my understanding.
General Assembly resolution: The policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa.
A/RES/2671 F (XXV), 8 December 1970
The General Assembly,
...
Gravely concerned over the aggravation of the situation in South Africa and in southern Africa as a whole, because of the inhuman and aggressive policies of apartheid pursued by the Government of South Africa in defiance of United Nations resolutions, in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in contravention of its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations,
Expressing deep concern over the increasing military
build-up of South Africa, which constitutes a grave danger to the cause of peace and security on the African continent,
Noting with indignation the continued persecution and torture of African patriots and other opponents of apartheid by the Government of South Africa under the Terrorism Act of 1967 and other ruthless repressive legislation,
Convinced that the establishment of "bantustans" in South Africa is designed to deprive the majority of the people of their inalienable rights and to destroy the unity of the South African people,
...
1. Declares that the policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa are a negation of the Charter of the United Nations and constitute a crime against humanity;
2. Reaffirms its recognition of the legitimacy of the struggle of the people of South Africa to eliminate, by all means at their disposal, apartheid and racial discrimination and to attain majority rule in the country as a whole, based on universal suffrage;
3. Condemns the establishment by the racist minority Government of South Africa of "bantustans" in so-called African reserves as fraudulent, a violation of the principle of
self-determination and prejudicial to the territorial integrity of the State and the unity of its people;
4. Again calls upon the Government of South Africa to end all repressive measures against African patriots and other opponents of apartheid and to liberate all persons imprisoned, interned or subjected to other restrictions for their opposition to apartheid;
5. Strongly deplores the continued cooperation by certain States and foreign economic interests with South Africa in the military, economic, political and other fields, as such cooperation encourages the Government of South Africa in the pursuit of its inhuman policies;
6. Again draws the attention of the Security Council to the grave situation in South Africa and in southern Africa as a whole and recommends that the Council resume urgently the consideration of effective measures, in the light of relevant General Assembly resolutions, including those under Chapter VII of the Charter;
7. Urges all States:
(a) To terminate diplomatic, consular and other official relations with the Government of South Africa;
(b) To terminate all military, economic, technical and other cooperation with South Africa;
(c) To end tariff and other preferences to South African exports and facilities for investment in South Africa;
(d) To ensure that companies registered in their countries and their nationals comply with the United Nations resolutions on this question;
8. Requests all States and organizations to suspend cultural, educational, sporting and other exchanges with the racist regime and with organizations or institutions in South Africa which practise apartheid;
9. Commends the international and national sporting
organizations for their contribution to the international campaign against apartheid by their boycott of South African teams selected under apartheid policies;
...
General Assembly resolution: The policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa -- Apartheid in sports
A/RES/2775 D (XXVI), 29 November 1971
The General Assembly,
Recalling that Member States have pledged themselves, under Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations, to promote and encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion,
Recalling further its request to all States and national and international sports organizations to suspend exchanges of sporting events with South African teams selected under apartheid policies,
Bearing in mind that 1971 was designated as the International Year for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, to be observed in the name of the ever-growing struggle against racial discrimination in all its forms and manifestations and in the name of international solidarity with those struggling against racism,
1. Declares its unqualified support of the Olympic principle that no discrimination be allowed on the grounds of race, religion or political affiliation;
2. Affirms that merit should be the sole criterion for participation in sports activities;
3. Solemnly calls upon all national and international sports organizations to uphold the Olympic principle of
non-discrimination and to discourage and deny support to sporting events organized in violation of this principle;
4. Calls upon individual sportsmen to refuse to participate in any sports activity in a country in which there is an official policy of racial discrimination or apartheid in the field of sports;
5. Urges all States to promote adherence to the Olympic principle of non-discrimination and to encourage their sports organizations to withhold support from sporting events organized in violation of this principle;
6. Requests national and international sports organizations and the public to deny any form of recognition to any sports activity from which persons are debarred or in which they are subjected to any discrimination on the basis of race, religion or political affiliation;
7. Condemns the actions of the Government of South Africa in enforcing racial discrimination and segregation in sports;
8. Notes with regret that some national and international sports organizations have continued exchanges with teams from South Africa that have been selected for international competition on the basis of competition closed to otherwise qualified sportsmen solely on the basis of their race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin;
9. Commends those international and national sports organizations that have supported the international campaign against apartheid in sports;
10. Requests all States to urge their national sports organizations to act in accordance with the present resolution;
11. Requests the Secretary-General:
(a) To bring the present resolution to the attention of international sports organizations;
(b) To keep the Special Committee on Apartheid informed on the implementation of the present resolution;
(c) To submit a report on this matter to the General Assembly at its twenty-seventh session.
General Assembly resolution: The policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa -- Establishment of bantustans
A/RES/2775 E (XXVI), 28 November 1971
The General Assembly,
...
Noting that the Government of South Africa, while treating the White inhabitants of that country, irrespective of their national origins, as constituting one nation, seeks artificially to divide the African people into "nations" according to their tribal origins and justifies the establishment of non-contiguous Bantu homelands (bantustans) on that basis,
Recognizing that the real purpose of the establishment of bantustans is to divide the Africans, setting one tribe against the other with a view to weakening the African front in its struggle for its inalienable and just rights,
Having regard to the subsequent resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council on the policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa, and in particular General Assembly resolution 2671 (XXV) of 8 December 1970,
Recalling its resolution 95 (I) of 11 December 1946, in which it affirmed the principles of international law recognized by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, and the judgement of the Tribunal,
Bearing in mind the obligations of all States under international law, the Charter of the United Nations, the human rights principles and the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949,
Noting further that under the aforementioned resolution crimes against humanity are committed when enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts are enforced against any civilian population on political, racial or religious grounds,
Noting that many African communities have been uprooted and that large numbers of Africans have been forcibly removed from their homes in pursuance of the policies of apartheid,
Considering that the establishment of bantustans and other measures
adopted by the Government of South Africa in pursuance of apartheid are
designed to consolidate and perpetuate domination by a White minority and
the dispossession and exploitation of the African and other non-White people
of South Africa, as well as of Namibia,
1. Again condemns the establishment by the Government of South Africa of Bantu homelands (bantustans) and the forcible removal of the African people of South Africa and Namibia to those areas as a violation of their inalienable rights, contrary to the principle of self-determination and prejudicial to the territorial integrity of the countries and the unity of their peoples;
2. Declares that the United Nations will continue to encourage and promote a solution to the situation in South Africa through the full application of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including political rights, to all inhabitants of the territory of South Africa as a whole, regardless of race, colour or creed;
...
General Assembly resolution: The policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa -- Trade union activities against apartheid.
A/RES/2775 H (XXVI), 28 November 1971
The General Assembly,
...
Noting the opposition of the international trade union movement to apartheid and racial discrimination,
Convinced of the need to promote concerted action by the trade union movement at the national and international levels in the campaign against apartheid,
...
1. Appeals to all national and international trade union organizations to intensify their action against apartheid, in particular by:
(a) Discouraging the emigration of skilled workers to South Africa;
(b) Taking appropriate action in connection with the infringements of trade union rights and the persecution of trade unionists in South Africa;
(c) Exerting maximum pressure on foreign economic and financial interests which are profiting from racial discrimination against non-White workers in South Africa, in order to persuade them to cease such exploitation;
(d) Cooperating with other organizations engaged in the international campaign against apartheid;
...
Security Council resolution: The question of race conflict in South Africa resulting from the policies of apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa.
S/RES/311 (1972), 4 February 1972
The Security Council,
Noting with grave concern the aggravation of the situation in South Africa resulting from the continued intensification and expansion of the policies of apartheid and repression by the Government of South Africa,
...
Convinced that urgent measures must be taken by the Security Council to secure implementation of its resolutions and thereby promote a solution to the grave situation in South Africa and southern Africa,
1. Condemns the Government of South Africa for continuing its policies of apartheid in violation of its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations;
2. Reiterates its total opposition to the policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa;
3. Recognizes the legitimacy of the struggle of the oppressed people of South Africa in pursuance of their human and political rights, as set forth in the Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
4. Urgently calls upon the Government of South Africa to release all persons imprisoned, interned or subjected to other restrictions as a result of the policies of apartheid;
5. Calls upon all States to observe strictly the arms embargo against South Africa;
6. Urges Governments and individuals to contribute generously and regularly to the United Nations funds which are used for humanitarian and training purposes to assist the victims of apartheid;
7. Commends the intergovernmental organizations,
non-governmental organizations and individuals for assisting in the education and training of South Africans and urges those who do not to begin and those who do to expand their efforts in this field;
8. Decides, as a matter of urgency, to examine methods of resolving the present situation arising out of the policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa.
General Assembly resolution: Policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa -- Situation in South Africa resulting from the policies of apartheid.
A/RES/2923 E (XXVII), 15 November 1972
The General Assembly,...
Strongly convinced that the United Nations has a vital interest in securing the speedy elimination of apartheid,
1. Condemns the racist Government of South Africa for continuing and intensifying the implementation of its inhuman policy of apartheid, and subjecting the opponents of apartheid to ruthless repression, in violation of its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, thereby creating a grave threat to the peace;...
11. Appeals to Governments, specialized agencies, national and international organizations and individuals to provide greater assistance, directly or through the Organization of African Unity, to the national movement of the oppressed people of South Africa;
12. Requests the specialized agencies and other organizations within the United Nations system to discontinue all collaboration with the Government of South Africa until it renounces its policies of apartheid in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly;
13. Requests States members of international agencies and organizations, particularly the members of the European Economic Community, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the International Monetary Fund, to take the necessary steps to deny all assistance and commercial or other facilities to the Government of South Africa so long as it pursues its policies of apartheid and racial discrimination and continues to defy the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council;
14. Requests all States to take appropriate steps, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 2775 D (XXVI), to uphold the Olympic principle of non-discrimination in sports and to withhold any support from sporting events organized in violation of this principle, particularly with the participation of racially selected teams from South Africa;
15. Commends the activities of anti-apartheid movements, trade unions, student organizations, churches and other groups which have promoted national and international action against apartheid;
16. Invites all organizations, institutions and information media to organize in 1973, in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the United Nations, intensified and co-ordinated campaigns with the following goals:
(a) Discontinuance of all military, economic and political collaboration with South Africa;
(b) Cessation of all activities by foreign economic interests which encourage the South African régime in its imposition of apartheid;
(c) Condemnation of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners and detainees in South Africa;
(d) Discouragement of emigration to South Africa, especially of skilled workers;
(e) Boycott of South Africa in sports and in cultural and other activities;
(f) World-wide collection of contributions for assistance to the victims of apartheid and support to the movement of the
oppressed people of South Africa for freedom;
General Assembly resolution: Policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa -- International Conference of Trade Unions against Apartheid.
A/RES/2923 F (XXVI), 15 November 1972
The General Assembly,
...
1. Again appeals to all national and international trade union organizations to intensify their action against apartheid;
2. Welcomes the decision taken by the Workers' Group at the International Labour Conference to convene at Geneva, in 1973, an international conference of trade unions to work out a common programme of action against apartheid;
3. Notes with satisfaction the constructive attitude of the main international trade union organizations in regard to the convening of the International Conference of Trade Unions against Apartheid;
4. Commends the Special Committee on Apartheid for its efforts in helping to promote action by the workers of the world against apartheid;
5. Requests and authorizes the Special Committee on Apartheid to participate effectively in the proposed International Conference of Trade Unions against Apartheid and in the meeting of the Preparator Committee for the Conference;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide appropriate assistance to facilitate the holding of the Conference;
7. Authorizes the Secretary-General to reimburse the costs necessary to enable up to five representatives of trade union organizations from southern Africa to participate in the Conference, as shall be decided by the Special Committee on Apartheid, on the proposal of the Preparatory Committee for the Conference and in consultation with the Organization of African Unity;
...
Statement by Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim to the Special Committee on Apartheid at a meeting on the occasion of the Committee's tenth anniversary.
UN Press Release SG/SM/1837 - GA/AP/317, 2 April 1973
...
The General Assembly established this Committee to enable the situation in southern Africa to be followed continuously by the United Nations, and not only during the annual sessions of the Assembly. It was rightly felt that attention on developments in South Africa must be constant. This Committee has played an important role in this vital activity, and its work has made a major contribution to the ever-increasing public awareness of conditions which, unhappily, still exist more than 10 years after Sharpeville.
I should like to repeat to you words which I used on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination:
"Discrimination based on race is cruel, squalid, and contemptible, and discredits all who engage in it. So long as it persists, the rancour and bitterness it engenders will imperil the fragile peace which we now have."
The most important aspect of the work of this Committee over the past 10 years has been its determination to make positive proposals for the elimination of apartheid. It has actively and successfully urged the implementation of United Nations resolutions by a great number of Member States and organizations; it promoted the movement towards the arms embargo against South Africa; it has repeatedly drawn public attention to repressive policies and the ill-treatment of prisoners; it has initiated discussion and action in the human rights field; it was the driving force behind the United Nations Trust Fund for South Africa, and it is concerned with the work of the Advisory Committee on the United Nations Educational and Training Programme for South Africa; it has stimulated action in the specialized agencies; it proposed the establishment of the Unit on Apartheid whose work has been of such significance; and it has conduced conferences and seminars which have further attracted international attention to this subject.
This is not, of course, a comprehensive list of the activities of this Committee over the past 10 years, but it indicates the vigour and imagination with which the Committee has undertaken its important task. The forthcoming International Trade Union Conference against Apartheid, to be held in Geneva in June, is another example of the Special Committee's policy of bringing all groups of concerned citizens into the world-wide campaign against apartheid.
I know that the Committee would like me to make particular reference to the contribution which has been made by non-governmental organizations and individuals who have personal experience of, and are deeply concerned about, the policies of apartheid. The Secretariat's Unit on Apartheid has also benefitted greatly from this assistance and advice. I very much hope that the Committee will continue to have this assistance which we deeply appreciate. It emphasizes the major role of non-governmental organizations in the humanitarian and political fields, and reminds us that the Charter opens with the words, "We the peoples of the United Nations". The endeavours of representatives of governments of liberation movements, of the Organization of African Unity, of the United Nations specialized agencies, and non-governmental organizations and individual experts, have given this Committee not only much vital information but have also established its important role in the struggle against apartheid.
We are about to enter the Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination. There are those who are skeptical about the proclamation of special years and decades for particular causes. Certainly, they alone cannot achieve our objective. But when they are used effectively to harness world opinion, to educate, and to promote not only concern but positive attitudes -- then they have a vital role.
The International Conference for the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in Southern Africa will be held in Oslo on 9 to 14 April. I hope that this very important Conference will lead to constructive proposals for greater action at all levels, both for assistance to the victims of colonialism and apartheid, and for the elimination of the policies that create these victims. The Oslo Conference, to which I attach great importance, could be a most significant step in the struggle against apartheid.
I know that there are many people who are discouraged by the continued
persistence of policies of apartheid in spite of all the endeavours of
the United Nations. But I do not feel that we need be disheartened. The
steadily increasing international awareness and condemnation of apartheid
has given the oppressed people of southern Africa real hope, and has encouraged
them in their struggle. This year, government contributions for United
Nations funds for our activities in this field have been greater than ever
before. It is now, more than ever, imperative that we institute more effective
international action to eliminate apartheid.
The situation in southern Africa has been one of my dominant concerns since I took office as Secretary-General. In this task I have had the full cooperation of the OAU and the various United Nations Committees, including the Special Committee on Apartheid, led by Ambassador Ogbu of Nigeria. In the Secretariat, I have also had the invaluable and devoted assistance of Mangalam Chacko, whom many of you knew well. His sudden death has been a profound blow to the United Nations, to the international community at large, and to me personally. I cannot think of a better memorial to his life and work than the elimination of the evil disease of racial discrimination, and, in particular, of apartheid. All of us in the United Nations family honour his memory, and will continue his work.
So long as apartheid remains, this Committee will continue to play a crucial role in the endeavours of the United Nations to eliminate this evil.
I thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you, and I wish you well in your vitally important work.
Programme of action adopted by the International Conference of Experts for the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in South Africa (Oslo, 9-14 April 1973).
A/9061, 7 May 1973
GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF THE SITUATION
(1) Participants at the International Conference of Experts for the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in Southern Africa, held in Oslo from 9 to 14 April 1973 under the auspices of the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity, share the grave concern of the international community about the present situation in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), Angola, Guinea (Bissau) and Cape Verde, Mozambique, and Sao Tomé and Príncipe.
(2) The peoples of these Territories are carrying forward their struggle for freedom and independence through new victories on an unprecedented scale and intensity. In all parts of the world, and in growing numbers, freedom-loving States and peoples stand together in support of that struggle.
(3) Yet the colonial and apartheid régimes of Lisbon, Pretoria and Salisbury remain stubbornly determined to maintain their domination. Their response to the peoples' struggle is desperately to perpetrate more savage repression and warfare. They also carry out acts of aggression against independent African States. These régimes are sustained only by the collaboration of certain Governments and major economic interests, without whose aid they would be impotent.
(4) The conscience of the world demands as never before that the colonial and apartheid régimes be liquidated so that peace may be achieved and the dignity of man preserved.
(5) The struggle of the peoples of these Territories is entirely just and legitimate, deserving the complete support of the world community. The liberation movements which lead that struggle are the authentic representatives of their peoples and should receive full international recognition.
(6) It is thus the solemn duty of international organizations, Governments and peoples to accelerate the isolation of the colonial and apartheid régimes and channel massive assistance to the liberation movements. For it is the liberation movements which are leading the struggle, regaining and reconstructing their territories and shaping afresh the destinies of their peoples in dignity and freedom.
(7) The proposals emanating from the International Conference of Experts for the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in Southern Africa require the most serious and urgent consideration from the United Nations, Organization of African Unity, Governments, organizations and peoples all over the world. They form a programme of action for concerted international efforts to hasten the eradication of the scourge of colonialism and apartheid, thereby promoting international peace and security.
D. Proposals for action in regard to South Africa
(59) The policy of apartheid, which is a crime against humanity, a flagrant violation of the principles of the United Nations and a massive and ruthless denial of human rights, constitutes a threat to peace. It amounts to a serious and grave threat to the peace and security of Africa and the world and requires urgent action by the Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations because of the following:
(a) South Africa's central role in helping to maintain and perpetuate colonial and racist rule in southern Africa;
(b) Its continued illegal occupation of the international Territory of Namibia;
(c) Its deliberate and systematic violation of international mandatory sanctions against Southern Rhodesia;
(d) The illegal intervention of its armed units in defence of the racist minority régime in Southern Rhodesia;
(e) It military intervention in Angola and Mozambique;
(f) Its acts of aggression against independent African States;
(g) Its military build-up and threatening posture towards the rest of the continent.
(60) The United Nations should adopt a programme of international economic and other mandatory sanctions to counteract the growing aggressive role of South Africa and ask all States to provide material and moral support to the liberation movement.
(61) The collaborative role of international investment in, and trade and other relations with, South Africa should be exposed and the false claim that such supportive links can act as agents for change should be condemned and rejected. Investigations and studies of these links should take place in full consultation with the liberation movement.
(62) Action should be taken by the United Nations and the organizations of the United Nations system, by States as well as by national and international bodies, governmental and non-governmental, in full support of campaigns conducted by anti-apartheid movements and other solidarity organizations to promote international disengagement from and an end to all collaborative
links with South Africa.
(63) Investments should be withdrawn; all new investment programmes should be stopped; no loans or any other assistance should be provided either to the white racist régime or to corporations operating in South Africa.
(64) All economic and scientific support of, collaboration with, and assistance to South Africa should be stopped, in particular by:
(a) Terminating the purchase of gold;
(b) Terminating the purchase of platinum and other minerals;
(c) Discontinuing all scientific collaboration, in particular nuclear co-operation;
(d) Refusing to grant patents and licenses to the Government of South Africa and its institutions, as well as to corporations and other bodies which operate in South Africa.
(65) The flow of immigrants should be stopped; States should prohibit special recruiting organizations from operating in their countries and prevent, or at least dissuade, their citizens from migrating to South Africa; trade unions should take special measures to prevent their members from migrating to South Africa.
(66) The European Economic Community should end all special terms and concessions already granted to South Africa, undertake to have no further dealings with its régime and its mission in Brussels and pledge that it will not enter into any special agreements or arrangements with South Africa in the future.
(67) The Simonstown Agreements between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and South Africa should be terminated and no military arrangements should be made by any State with South Africa.
(68) The international arms embargo should be fully implemented by all States, and the Security Council should expose those States which violate it, especially France, and secure their compliance. The Security Council should take further action to prevent the importation or arms from South Africa by other States. The Security Council should also examine all other forms of military co-operation with South Africa and take appropriate action.
(69) International and national trade union movements and other organizations should take action to prevent the production of arms and other military equipment for and their supply to South Africa.
(70) The United Nations and the organization of the United Nations system should work closely with anti-apartheid movements and provide them with full support. Where such movements do not exist, their establishment should be encouraged.
(71) The United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid should work closely with anti-apartheid movements to help promote a joint programme of conferences in support of the policies of the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity.
(72) Action should be taken by States, organizations and the international community to isolate South Africa from all athletic competitions and to end all cultural links with South Africa as long as the practice of apartheid is continued.
(73) The international boycott of South African goods and campaigns against corporations which have links with South Africa should be intensified.
(74) States should adopt the Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
E. Proposals for general action in support of the liberation movements
(75) Action should be taken by all United Nations bodies, the organizations of the United Nations system, the specialized agencies and other international organizations to ensure full representation and participation by liberation movements as the authentic representatives of their peoples and countries.
(76) All Governments and organizations should deal directly with the liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity on all questions concerning their countries.
(77) The specialized agencies should discontinue all collaboration with the racist minority régime of Southern Rhodesia and the Governments of South Africa and Portugal.
(78) The right of the people of southern Africa to strive for their liberation by all appropriate means, including armed struggle against the oppression and brutality of the colonial and racist régimes, should be fully recognized and supported.
(79) The United Nations and the Organization of African Unity should keep close contacts with all non-governmental organizations supporting the liberation struggle in southern Africa and cease all collaboration with those non-governmental organizations which are opposed to that struggle.
(80) The United Nations should collaborate more closely with intergovernmental and regional organizations and with non-governmental groups which mobilize public action in support of liberation movements.
(81) Governments should be encouraged to give financial support to non-governmental action groups working for the support of liberation movements in southern Africa.
(82) Non-governmental organizations should publicize the activities of companies involved in southern Africa and organize public campaigns for their withdrawal. Full information on these campaigns should be circulated all over the world in order to promote concerted campaigns in all countries where those companies have interests.
(83) The participation in international sports by the racist and colonial régimes is a direct affront to the international community as a whole and should be subject to boycott until such régimes are replaced by independent democratic governments.
(84) Governments and organizations should be encouraged to set up anti-colonial and anti-apartheid centres for the purpose of mobilizing public opinion in support of the liberation struggle.
(85) The United Nations should take further steps and more adequate measures to disseminate information widely through the press, radio, television and other media, especially in Western Europe, the Americas and Japan, in support of the national liberation struggle being waged by the people in southern Africa and to expose the crimes of the colonial and racist régimes and their accomplices.
PART TWO. PROPOSALS FOR ACTION ON ASSISTANCE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
A. Reasons for assistance
(90) The struggle for the people of southern Africa for freedom and independence is a legitimate struggle, and the international community has a duty to provide moral and material assistance to the liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity.
(91) Assistance to the liberation movements in southern Africa is appropriate and desirable since they are engaged in a struggle for a just cause, consistent with the purposes and principles of the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity and other organizations, while the colonial and racist régimes resort to colonial wars and oppressive measures in defiance of the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity and other organizations.
(92) The colonial and racist régimes could not have continued to defy United Nations resolutions and world opinion but for the attitude of some Governments allied to them, which prevent effective international action and assist these régimes. Foreign economic interests, in their exploitation of the resources of southern Africa, continue to assist these régimes and profit from the oppression of the African peoples. It is, therefore, imperative that African peoples of these Territories receive all necessary assistance in their difficult struggles against the criminal oppressors and their accomplices.
(93) It should be recognized that the liberation movements have been forced to embark on armed struggles because of the intransigence and brutality of the colonial and racist régimes. All countries and peoples who love freedom and peace and uphold justice should give assistance to the liberation movements in their just struggle, including armed struggle.
(94) The needs of the liberation movements for international assistance have greatly grown in recent years because of their success in liberating large areas in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea (Bissau), because of the resort by the Portuguese forces to the use of defoliants and other barbarous methods of warfare, and because of the intensified struggle by the liberation movements in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) and the areas still under Portuguese colonial control.
(95) There is increasing need for direct assistance to the oppressed peoples in southern Africa and their liberation movements in order to support the movements in the conduct of their legitimate struggle for freedom, to help in the reconstruction of the liberated areas and to alleviate the suffering occurring in the course of their struggle.
(96) There is a need to continue and increase humanitarian assistance to refugees and persons persecuted for their opposition to colonialism and apartheid. There is a need to continue and increase educational and training facilities in order to build up cadres for the promotion of the liberation struggle and for the administration and development of these Territories.
(97) There is a need for much greater assistance in the task of reconstructing the liberated areas which now have a population of over three million. There is a need for much greater support for the political and information activities of the liberation movements and for the various organizations involved in the struggle for freedom in the areas under colonial and racist control, such as labour and student organization.
(98) At this stage, greater moral and material assistance to the liberation movements is among the most effective ways to secure peace in the region by hastening the completion of the process of decolonization and elimination of apartheid.
(99) In providing assistance to the oppressed peoples in southern Africa and their liberation movements, it should be recognized that this is not charity but an act of solidarity with peoples engaged in a just struggle.
(100) The primary responsibility for the struggle for freedom and independence belongs to the oppressed people themselves and to their liberation movements. The role of the international community is supportive and complementary.
(101) Governments and organizations providing assistance to liberation movements should avoid paternalism. They should, as far as possible, provide direct assistance to the liberation movements to be administered by the movements themselves as the authentic representatives of the people of these Territories.
C. Ways and means of assistance
(107) International assistance should be provided, as much as possible, directly to the liberation movements in southern Africa. In cases where the assistance is administered by other organizations, the Organization of African Unity and the liberation movements should be consulted on all aspects of the operations.
(108) Direct assistance to the liberation movements reflects confidence in the movements. It ensures that assistance is utilized most effectively and is relevant to the needs of the Territories and to the struggle for freedom in southern Africa.
(109) The United Nations and other international organizations should contribute a share of their budgets for assistance to the liberation movements in order to demonstrate full solidarity with and support of the struggles.
...
(117) The United Nations organs dealing with development should allot sufficient funds for the programmes drawn up by the specialized agencies in consultation with the Organization of African Unity and the liberation movements. The specialized agencies should also, after consultation with the Organization of African Unity and the liberation movements, actively seek voluntary contributions from Governments and foundations.
Statement by Mr. Edwin O. Ogbu (Nigeria), Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid, at the opening meeting of the International Conference of Trade Unions against Apartheid, 15 June 1973.
A/9169, 1 October 1973
... The international trade union movement is centrally placed to play a significant role in the world-wide campaign against racism and the evil system of apartheid which can only be compared to nazism. It is everybody's hope that your deliberations will lead to the elaboration of a sustained and cohesive programme of action which will constitute a turning point in this common struggle of the masses and the oppressed workers of southern Africa.
I may perhaps note that you are holding this Conference 25 years after the apartheid régime came to power in South Africa with the votes of a minority of the white minority and 10 years after the Summit Conference of Independent African States proclaimed that the cause of the oppressed people of South Africa is the cause of all African Governments and peoples. It was exactly 10 years ago, at the general conference of the ILO, that the African delegations and the great majority of the workers joined together to press for more vigorous action by the ILO, including the expulsion of the South African racist régime and the racist trade unions. The present conference is, in a sense, a move to formulate further action which has become imperative in the light of the experience of the past decade.
...
Apartheid is an extremely devious and perfected system devised to impose segregation among people while perpetuating exploitation by the white minority of the masses of black workers in South Africa. It includes geographical segregation in the form of Bantustans and "separate development" of the white industrialized areas, using the hard work and labour of the blacks. What is even more intolerable is the fact that the perpetrators of this crime pose as benefactors and pretend to work for the welfare and advancement of their hapless victims. The picture is dismal: tens of thousands of African workers have gone on strike against starvation wages and tragic working conditions, in spite of the great risks involved for themselves and their families; unprecedented amounts of capital, technology and weapons are pouring into South Africa every year; a well-orchestrated campaign is waged by the South African Government and its supporters in order to convince the world that economic changes are or will occur, which will eventually change the whole system. This is an utterly false and debasing lie.
The system of exploitation and oppression of the black South Africans has been codified and ruthlessly implemented. Millions of African workers have been jailed for contravening the so-called "pass laws"; thousands have been tortured or executed and many have died in detention; tens of thousands of families have been forcibly removed to impoverished "reserves" where malnutrition and high mortality rates prevail, real income for Africans has steadily diminished and unemployment is increasing. The Trade Union Movement cannot and should not tolerate this situation if it wants to remain faithful to its fundamental principles of justice and equality for the worker.
A whole paraphernalia of so-called texts is used by South Africa to impose the system. The tool of "communist threat" is used by Vorster and his Régime, in the same way as McCarthyism was used in the United Sates 20 years ago. A person is declared a communist in South Africa, at any time and under any pretext. The Suppression of Communism Act and its inhumaneness are surpassed only by the Terrorism Act. Under this Act, anyone suspected of the slightest opposition to the Government can be arrested and detained indefinitely. No court of law can intervene and no lawyer, relative or even clergyman has access to the detainee.
The apartheid situation has become one of the major problems facing the international community. Its implications for peace are far-reaching and incalculable. It has long been proved that this situation constitutes not only a breach of the United Nations Charter but a threat to international peace and security. Apartheid is a crime against humanity.
...
The trade unions of the world cannot in any way be a party to this crime of apartheid which is based on efforts to perpetuate the system of slave labour of the black people. They cannot afford to condone this system or to acquiesce in it, if they are faithful to the principles of trade unionism.
...
International action against apartheid began with the establishment of the United Nations. The General Assembly of the United Nations, as is well known, has adopted a great number of resolutions and has recommended specific measures to deal with the situation in the Republic of South Africa. The Assembly has requested Member States to break off diplomatic relations with South Africa, to close their ports to vessels of South Africa, to prohibit their ships from entering South African ports, to boycott all South African goods and refrain from trading with that country, to refuse landing and passage facilities to all aircraft belonging to the Government and companies registered under the laws of South Africa, etc.
The long list of resolutions call for the release of political prisoners and for assistance to the organizations and individuals supporting the victims of apartheid. The General Assembly has appealed to all States to provide political, moral and material assistance to the national liberation movement of the oppressed people of South Africa. It has appealed to all States to discourage the flow of immigrants, particularly skilled and technical personnel, to South Africa. It has requested all States and organizations to suspend cultural, educational, sporting and other exchanges with the racist regime and its institutions. It has asked all States to refrain from extending loans, investments and technical assistance to South Africa.
In the Security Council, where the major Powers have permanent seats, several resolutions condemning the policies of apartheid have been adopted. The South African regime has been called upon to abandon its policies and to abolish the measures of repression against the people. The General Assembly has declared itself opposed to economic collaboration with the South African Government and has expressed itself in favour of an economic boycott of South Africa.
The Security Council has called upon all States to cease the sale and shipment to South Africa of arms, ammunition of all types, military vehicles, and equipment or materials for the manufacture and maintenance of arms and ammunition in South Africa.
This type of action cannot be implemented without the active support of the people, and particularly where collaboration with South Africa is strong. Action by non-governmental organizations is one of the main pillars on which the anti-apartheid campaign has to rest. Greater co-ordination between the United Nations and its agencies, on the one hand, and non-governmental organizations, on the other, is essential. In the face of Government inertia, the action of workers, students and church groups becomes extremely significant. Severance of trade relations with South Africa and the disengagement of foreign business cannot be promoted without the effective support of the workers of the world. Many countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and other areas are in fact enforcing sanctions against South Africa, some of them at great sacrifice. There are boycotts by anti-apartheid movement,s cooperatives and some trade unions in Western countries, but the companies in Western countries and in Japan continue to increase their trade and investment.
It is for the trade union movement itself to decide what action it is prepared to take to answer the appeal of the United Nations. The realities of the situation should be recognized; the power in South Africa is in the hands of the white minority interests which, with foreign capital, own and control the mines, the banks, the finance houses and most of the farms and industries. The struggle to release the black workers from slavery, to put an end to the torture, harassment and oppression, cannot be ignored by you. The black people of South Africa are looking to you for help. The evidence clearly establishes that the Government of the Republic of South Africa has violated and continues to violate the principles of international law and morality. Therefore the responsibility of the United Nations to take severe action and to punish South Africa is clear and beyond any doubt. However, what we have come to discuss here today is the role of the worker. I recall, at this juncture, the recent decision by the World Council of Churches to liquidate its financial holding in corporations doing business with South Africa and to withdraw all funds deposited in banks that maintain operations in countries where racist regimes dominate. This is one type of concrete action which can and has been taken by non-governmental organizations.
The Special Committee on Apartheid has followed closely this type of action taken by organizations and has given it its blessing and support. It wishes to emphasize the role which trade unions can play by boycotting shipments to and from South Africa and by refusing to load vessels travelling to and from South Africa. Measures could also be applied against air transport, where the workers could show their solidarity by boycotting aircraft carrying goods from South Africa. Pressure should be exercised on banks and companies to withdraw funds and to disengage from South Africa. The immigration of workers to South Africa should be completely halted. Trade union organizations may establish information committees which would act in close co-operation with anti-apartheid movements in countries, from which workers emigrate to South Africa and where collaboration exists with South Africa. The phenomenon of the migration of workers from neighbouring countries into South Africa should also be halted. It may be necessary for a standing working body to be established among your organizations to draw the attention of the international trade union movement to violations of the embargo on shipments of arms to South Africa and of the economic boycott of South Africa. The trade union movement may also be in a position to provide financial aid to the victims of South Africa's policies. Certainly no trade union organization should be willing to invest its funds or to have holdings in companies which are involved in the exploitation of South African labour. It was estimated last year that in the United Kingdom alone, 18 trade unions had between them over 12 million pounds invested in firms with South African interests.
...
I wish to emphasize that the United Nations needs the active and continuing support of the trade unions and other organizations all over the world if its resolutions on South Africa or Namibia are to be effective. Such support has become crucial because of the unco-operative attitude of some States which constitute the major trading partners of South Africa. The Security Council Committee on sanctions against Rhodesia has recognized that even the implementation of mandatory sanctions against the Smith regime requires the co-operation of trade unions and other organizations.
...
This Conference has a commitment which will grow steadily and which will change in a fundamental way the existing conditions of slave labour in South Africa. A united workers' movement in opposition to apartheid can deliver a mortal blow to the system of exploitation and oppression in that country. I therefore appeal to you, on behalf of the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid and in the name of the suffering black workers of South Africa, to consider concrete action which can be taken by the workers everywhere and as a common front. It may well be considered necessary to have a follow-up after three, four or six months to review progress. The decision will be yours to make. My Committee will co-operate with you. The approach to this matter which will be given by organizations in countries trading and co-operating with South Africa will be of special importance, and may well be the determining factor for the ultimate success or failure of the International Trade Union Conference against Apartheid.
General Assembly resolution: International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of apartheid.
A/RES/3068 (XXVIII), 30 November 1973
[The International Convention was adopted by the General Assembly in resolution 3068 (XXVIII) of 30 November 1973. It entered into force on 18 July 1976. As at 15 July 1994, 36 States had signed the Convention and 96 had ratified it or acceded to it.]
The States Parties to the present Convention,
Recalling the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, in which all Members pledged themselves to take joint
and separate action in cooperation with the Organization for the achievement of universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion,
Considering the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour or national origin,
Considering the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, in which the General Assembly stated that the process of liberation is irresistible and irreversible and that, in the interests of human dignity, progress and justice, an end must be put to colonialism and all practices of segregation and discrimination associated therewith,
Observing that, in accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, States particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction,
Observing that, in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, certain acts which may also be qualified as acts of apartheid constitute a crime under international law,
Observing that, in the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, "inhuman acts resulting from the policy of apartheid" are qualified as crimes against humanity,
Observing that the General Assembly of the United Nations has adopted a number of resolutions in which the policies and practices of apartheid are condemned as a crime against humanity,
Observing that the Security Council has emphasized that apartheid and its continued intensification and expansion seriously disturb and threaten international peace and security,
Convinced that an International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid would make it possible to take more effective measures at the international and national levels with a view to the suppression and punishment of the crime of apartheid,
Have agreed as follows:
Article I
1. The States Parties to the present Convention declare that apartheid is a crime against humanity and that inhuman acts resulting from the policies and practices of apartheid and similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination, as defined in article II of the Convention, are crimes violating the principles of international law, in particular the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and constituting a serious threat to international peace and security.
2. The States Parties to the present Convention declare criminal those organizations, institutions and individuals committing the crime of apartheid.
Article II
For the purpose of the present Convention, the term "the crime of apartheid", which shall include similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practised in southern Africa, shall apply to the following inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them:
(a) Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of person:
(i) By murder of members of a racial group or groups;
(ii) By the infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
(iii) By arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group or groups;
(b) Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part;
(c) Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognized trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association;
(d) Any measures, including legislative measures, designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups, the prohibition of mixed marriages among members of various racial groups, the expropriation of landed property belonging to a racial group or groups or to members thereof;
(e) Exploitation of the labour of the members of a racial group or groups, in particular by submitting them to forced labour;
(f) Persecution of organizations and persons, by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid.
Article III
International criminal responsibility shall apply, irrespective of the motive involved, to individuals, members of organizations and institutions and representatives of the State, whether residing in the territory of the State in which the acts are perpetrated or in some other State, whenever they:
(a) Commit, participate in, directly incite or conspire in the commission of the acts mentioned in article II of the present Convention;
(b) Directly abet, encourage or cooperate in the commission of the crime of apartheid.
Article IV
The States Parties to the present Convention undertake:
(a) To adopt any legislative or other measures necessary to suppress as well as to prevent any encouragement of the crime of apartheid and similar segregationist policies or their manifestations and to punish persons guilty of that crime;
(b) To adopt legislative, judicial and administrative measures to prosecute, bring to trial and punish in accordance with their jurisdiction persons responsible for, or accused of, the acts defined in article II of the present Convention whether or not such persons reside in the territory of the State in which the acts are committed or are nationals of that State or of some other State or are stateless persons.
Article V
Persons charged with the acts enumerated in article II of the present Convention may be tried by a competent tribunal of any State Party to the Convention which may acquire jurisdiction over the person of the accused or by an international penal tribunal having jurisdiction with respect to those States Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.
Article VI
The States Parties to the present Convention undertake to accept and carry out in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations the decisions taken by the Security Council aimed at the prevention, suppression and punishment of the crime of apartheid, and to cooperate in the implementation of decisions adopted by other competent organs of the United Nations with a view to achieving the purposes of the Convention.
Article VII
1. The States Parties to the present Convention undertake to submit periodic reports to the group established under article IX on the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures that they have adopted and that give effect to the provisions of the Convention.
2. Copies of the reports shall be transmitted through the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Special Committee on Apartheid.
Article VIII
Any State Party to the present Convention may call upon any competent organ of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as it considers appropriate for the prevention and suppression of the crime of apartheid.
Article IX
1. The Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights shall appoint a group consisting of three members of the Commission on Human Rights, who are also representatives of States Parties to the present Convention, to consider reports submitted by States Parties in accordance with article VII.
2. If, among the members of the Commission on Human Rights, there are no representatives of States Parties to the present Convention or if there are fewer than three such representatives, the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall, after consulting all States Parties to the Convention, designate a representative of the State Party or representatives of the States Parties which are not members of the Commission on Human Rights to take part in the work of the group established in accordance with paragraph 1 of this article, until such time as representatives of the States Parties to the Convention are elected to the Commission on Human Rights.
3. The group may meet for a period of not more than five days, either before the opening or after the closing of the session of the Commission on Human Rights, to consider the reports submitted in accordance with article VII.
Article X
1. The States Parties to the present Convention empower the Commission on Human Rights:
(a) To request United Nations organs, when transmitting copies of petitions under article 15 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to draw its attention to complaints concerning acts which are enumerated in article II of the present Convention;
(b) To prepare, on the basis of reports from competent organs of the United Nations and periodic reports from States Parties to the present Convention, a list of individuals, organizations, institutions and representatives of States which are alleged to be responsible for the crimes enumerated in article II of the Convention, as well as those against whom legal proceedings have been undertaken by States Parties to the Convention;
(c) To request information from the competent United Nations organs concerning measures taken by the authorities responsible for the administration of Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories, and all other Territories to which General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960 applies, with regard to such individuals alleged to be responsible for crimes under article II of the Convention who are believed to be under their territorial and administrative jurisdiction.
2. Pending the achievement of the objectives of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, contained in General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), the provisions of the present Convention shall in no way limit the right of petition granted to those peoples by other international instruments or by the United Nations and its specialized agencies.
Article XI
1. Acts enumerated in article II of the present Convention shall not be considered political crimes for the purpose of extradition.
2. The States Parties to the present Convention undertake in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their legislation and with the treaties in force.
Article XII
Disputes between States Parties arising out of the interpretation, application or implementation of the present Convention which have not been settled by negotiation shall, at the request of the States parties to the dispute, be brought before the International Court of Justice, save where the parties to the dispute have agreed on some other form of settlement.
Article XIII
The present Convention is open for signature by all States. Any State which does not sign the Convention before its entry into force may accede to it.
Article XIV
1. The present Convention is subject to ratification. Instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
2. Accession shall be effected by the deposit of an instrument of accession with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Article XV
1. The present Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the date of the deposit with the Secretary-General of the Untied Nations of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.
2. For each State ratifying the present Convention or acceding to it after the deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or instrument of accession, the Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the date of the deposit of its own instrument of ratification or instrument of accession.
Article XVI
A State Party may denounce the present Convention by written notification to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Denunciation shall take effect one year after the date of receipt of the notification by the Secretary-General.
Article XVII
1. A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any State Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
2. The General Assembly of the United Nations shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request.
Article XVIII
The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall inform all States of the following particulars:
(a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions under articles XIII and XIV;
(b) The date of entry into force of the present Convention under article XV;
(c) Denunciations under article XVI;
(d) Notification under article XVII.
Article XIX
1. The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations.
2. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall transmit certified copies of the present Convention to all States.
General Assembly resolution: Policies of apartheid of the Government of South Africa -- Situation in South Africa resulting from the policies of apartheid.
A/RES/3151 G (XXVIII), 14 December 1973
The General Assembly,
...
11. Declares that the South African regime has no right to represent the people of South Africa and that the liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity are the authentic representatives of the overwhelming majority of the South African people;
12. Authorizes the Special Committee on Apartheid, in consultation with the Organization of African Unity, to associate the South African liberation movements closely with its work;
13. Requests all specialized agencies and other intergovernmental organizations to deny membership or privileges of membership to the South African regime and to invite, in consultation with the Organization of African Unity, representatives of the liberation movements of the South African people recognized by that organization to participate in their meetings;
...
Statement by the Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid, Mr. Edwin Ogebe Ogbu (Nigeria), at a meeting of the Anti-Apartheid Committee of New Zealand, held at Victoria University in Wellington on 13 September 1974.
UN Press Release GA/AP/413, 16 September 1974
I am delighted at this opportunity personally to convey the greetings of the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid to the National Anti-Apartheid Committee of New Zealand and to all the organizations which are associated with it as sponsors.
What you have done in the past few years in informing the people of this country of the inhumanity of apartheid in South Africa, and in enabling the nation to pronounce itself against collaboration with racism in South AFrica, especially in sport, has been a source of great satisfaction and, indeed, encouragement to us at the United Nations. It reinforced our conviction that when people know the truth -- even in countries where the people are mostly of European origin -- they will reject apartheid and will join in efforts to eradicate it. This conviction was also put to the test in Australia and other countries and prevailed.
This conviction is precious because if it is proved wrong, humanity can look forward to nothing better than a permanent division across racial or colour barriers.
The actions of the Governments of New Zealand and Australia have also been a source of great comfort to the people in South Africa who have been struggling for decades for freedom and now face difficult days in their march towards the inevitable triumph of their just cause.
We greatly appreciate what the New Zealand Government has done, under the leadership of the late Mr. Norman Kirk, in dissociating this country from apartheid, especially in the important area of sport, and in affirming its faith in the oneness of humanity. I have been assured that the present Government, under the leadership of Mr. Wallace Rowling, will continue the same course. In fact, I would like to believe that this has no become the irrevocable national commitment of New Zealand.
If giving up rugby with the South AFrican Whites is a sacrifice -- and I know that New Zealanders are devoted to rugby -- I would like to assure you that your action has raised the esteem for New Zealand in Africa and all over the world.
I would like also to take this opportunity, as we are so close to the Commonwealth of Australia -- which I am regrettably unable to visit at this time because of the session of the United Nations General Assembly -- to reaffirm the great appreciation of the Special Committee for the steps taken by the Australian Government, under the leadership of Mr. Gough Whitlam, to dissociate Australia from apartheid. I would particularly like to refer to its recent decision to send home the military attache of the Pretoria regime.
On behalf of the Special Committee, I would ask all other countries which have exchanged military attaches with the Pretoria regime to follow the example of Australia if they want us to believe their protestations of opposition to apartheid or of friendship with AFrica or of loyalty to the United Nations.
Without in any way detracting from our appreciation for the actions of the Governments of New Zealand and Australia, I would like to acknowledge the commendable role played by the anti-apartheid movements and other non-governmental organizations in bringing about these welcome developments. The anti-apartheid movements have often acted, especially in the countries which have maintained relations with the South AFrican regime, as the conscience of the nation.
Here in New Zealand, even a few years ago, you were a very small group --small in numbers though big in conviction and perseverance. You continued your efforts, in spite of attacks against you, to defend one of the fundamental principles of the United Nations, the Olympic principle of non-discrimination and the very soul of decent sport. You pressed that the nation face its conscience.
I am glad that people from various sectors of public life -- churchmen, trade unionists, students and others -- joined in reaffirming opposition to racism at home and abroad.
As a Christian, I am not in the lest surprised that some churchmen have opposed apartheid and even faced persecution because of that opposition. How can nay true Christian act otherwise? Could Jesus Christ, who was himself born in Asia, condone the oppression and humiliation of human beings, especially the great majority of people in South Africa and the world, for the colour of their skin? Could He remain unconcerned when the Gospel is cited to justify such oppression and humiliation?
And how can any trade unionist be unconcerned about the situation in South AFrica? The struggle against apartheid is essentially a struggle of the working people against the denial of elementary trade union rights -- indeed, against the imposition of force labour and slavery -- on the basis of colour. The struggle of the South African people for liberation is partly the struggle of the workers for their rights
I am glad that the trade union movement in New Zealand has taken action in accordance with the decisions of the International Conference of Trade Unions against Apartheid, held in Geneva in June 1973.
But I would like to say that I am particularly heartened by the involvement of students and youth here in the struggle against apartheid and racism.
When you oppose apartheid, you are not merely showing sympathy with people suffering from poverty and oppression. You are not merely demonstrating solidarity with those struggling for a righteous cause.
You are contributing to the elimination of one of the scourges of our time and one of the major impediments to genuine cooperation between broad segments of humanity. You are helping to remove a cancer that can destroy our hopes for the future of humanity, in the next generation if not in the present.
The struggle in South Africa, let us be very clear, is not a struggle of the African people against the whites, but a struggle of humanism against racism.
If it were a mere revolt of the slaves or a face war by blacks against whites, the situation would be very different. In the South AFrican society where the whites live in comfort on the labour of the blacks, all that is needed to spread panic in the whole white community, as some one said, is a conspiracy of a few cooks and domestic servants.
But the African people, and their liberation movement, have shown the utmost restraint and attachment to humanism in refusing to meet terrorism with terrorism. They have suffered because they are struggling for the principle that South AFrica belongs to all the people who live in it -- black, brown or white. Their struggle is a struggle for all men and women, for the survival of whites as much as for the freedom of the blacks.
Just as the liberation movement of the African people of Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique fought for the liberation of the AFrican people, and thereby also the liberation of the Portuguese, the liberation movement of South Africa is struggling for the liberation of the blacks as well as the whites in South Africa. The true friends of the whites of South Africa are those who prevent that minority from its march to suicide under its present racist leadership.
As you know, the present regime in South Africa has not only committed crimes against the black people of South Africa, but has jailed and persecuted many whites who have opposed racism. It is ow threatening the white students of the National Union of South African Students because they upheld the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and disclosed the miserable conditions to which African workers are subjected. In opposing apartheid, we declare our solidarity not only with the oppressed black people but also with those whites who espouse human dignity.
I have come here, as I said, on a friendly visit to this country, at the invitation of the Government, to convey our appreciation to the Government and people of New Zealand. It is not my intention to criticize anyone -- even those few who are misguided and who are still advocating that this country, which has rejected racism at home, should fraternize with racists in Southern AFrica. It is my hope that they will see the light and join the mainstream of New Zealand, a country which we respect for its integrity.
But I must confess that I could hardly believe my eyes when I read in a paper that there is a group here which opposes the sports boycott against South Africa on the grounds that the world is discriminating against South AFrican for its policies when other countries practise discrimination -- and, I read to my amazement, including countries in Africa.
By refusing to play ball with the racists, it seems we are discriminating against the racists of South Africa, the one country in the world where racial discrimination is enshrined in the Constitution itself, not to mention hundreds of laws and the daily practice.
This group, I read, is apparently associated with some people in South Africa who call themselves, of all things, the "Committee for Fairness in Sports." That Committee, we know, is, in fact, a committee to defend the system under which 15 million Africans have never had fairness in sport or in anything else in life.
The present regime in South Africa has shown great inventiveness in giving misleading and utterly false titles to its acts. There is a Suppression of Communism Act under which numerous non-Communists and even opponents of Communism are persecute d-- including Chief Albert Lutuli, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and scores of churchmen. It passed an Abolition of Passes Act under which it reinforced the pass laws which prevent the free movement of Africans and made the passes more complicated. It has an Extension of University Education Act under which it prohibited blacks from attending the established universities. It has an Immorality Act under which making love to one's sweetheart is a punishable crime if the skin colours of the couple are not the same. It set up a Republic which is the opposite of a Republic as defined in any dictionary.
I hope New Zealanders will never be taken in by such false names, or copy the South African example and lose their integrity.
Let me also, as an African, be very frank about he gratuitous reference to independent African countries. Africa is a continent which has just emerged into freedom -- and it is not yet fully free. We are not perfect but we are trying hard to build our nations with the hope that we can forget the past and establish true international cooperation, even with our erstwhile oppressors. We hope we will succeed by our efforts, aided by the understanding, goodwill and cooperation of the rest of the world.
but before anyone tries to attack us for any real or imaginary mistakes we make during this period -- in order to defend the humiliation of Africans and to undermine cooperation between Africa and the world -- let him recall a bit of history.
In the centuries when Europe was developing its trade and industry, our continent suffered the ravages of the slave traders form which tens of millions of the sons and daughters of Africa perished -- and whole regions of our continent, especially my part of Africa, were depopulated. Our continent suffered the pillages of the colonialists who took the rich natural wealth of our continent and left the people poor, sick and illiterate.
We have been independent nations for much less than a generation under difficult international conditions -- facing inequalities in international trade and the remnants of prejudice in Europe and North America, as well as plots and conflicts instigated by the colonial and racist Powers and other vested interests.
We may have made mistakes -- which nation didn't? -- but in these few years the independent African States have made more progress in education, health and the enjoyment of human rights than perhaps any other continent has done in a comparable period to time. Despite the tragic past, we have opposed racism and stretched our hand of friendship to all the whites who settle din Africa -- on only one condition, that they accept that they are fellow human beings, fellow Africans, and not people destined to lord it over and humiliate Africans.
We seek friendship. We welcome friendly advice. But we will not tolerate inequality and humiliation. If this is discrimination, we do discriminate and we ask all our true friends to discriminate -- against the racists.
We are grateful to New Zealand and we are grateful to all of you in the Anti-Apartheid Committee and the associated organizations because you have made your choice. You have chosen the friendship of the people of Africa as against the enticements of those who oppress the African people and whose policies and actions are an affront to humanity.
I would like to say a few words about one matter which seems not to have been fully understood in New Zealand.
The United Nations General Assembly, at it last session in 1973, declared that the liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity are the authentic representatives of the overwhelming majority of the South African people, and reiterated that "the struggle of the oppressed people of South Africa by all available means for the total eradication of apartheid is legitimate and deserves the support of the international community".
Perhaps we had not adequately explained these provisions and some friends in New Zealand, I understand, have expressed apprehensions that they may imply an encouragement of violence.
Let me make it perfectly clear that the eSpecial Committee on Apartheid -- there is no doubt that Africa shares its view -- is most anxious to promote a peaceful solution of the situation in South Africa. We have again and again warned of the dangers of conflict in South Africa -- where it may develop into a race conflict with incalculable consequences -- and pressed constantly for economic and other action by the international community to avert a tragedy.
Let me also recall that the people of South Africa have struggled for many decades by non-violent means, at great sacrifice, to secure their legitimate rights. They have been the pioneers and the most persistent practitioners of non-violent passive resistance. To tell them about the virtues of non-violence is as ludicrous as carrying coals to Newcastle.
But at the same time, it is imperative that the world should recognize that the struggle in South Africa is a struggle between right and wrong, and all nations, organizations and individuals must make a choice. It is equally important to recognize that the South AFrican regime has been closing every possibility for a peaceful solution, by ruthlessly suppressing all non-violent and peaceful protest. It has been provoking the people to meet violence with violence, to meet massacres by armed self-defence.
Neither the United Nations nor Africa has tried to prescribe to the African people of South Africa the means of their struggle, nor have they encourage done form of struggle against another. The form of struggle is for the South African people to decide according to their circumstances.
What the United Nations has done is to affirm the legitimacy of the struggle of the oppressed people by means of their own choice. It has thereby rejected the right of the oppressors in South Africa to tell the African people what kind of servile status they should aspire to -- the Bantustans, for instance --0 and who they should go about it. It has rejected the efforts of some foreign vested interests to find "solutions" convenient for themselves -- "solutions" which are a compromise with racism and a continuation of racism, to enable these interests to go on making profits from injustice.
We reject and condemn the efforts of anyone who attempts to limit the right of the people of South Africa to fight for their freedom, or to seek total eradication of apartheid and racial discrimination. We cannot accept that people of other countries have a right to resort to violence, but African people, because they are black, are denied that right. At the same time, we will do everything possible, by international action, to spare the South African people the suffering and the agonies of a violent conflict. That is precisely why we are appealing for support from all countries and peoples.
Those of you who have followed recent events in Africa know that the African people have not resorted to violence in their struggle for freedom until their peaceful protests were met by ruthless massacres. Today, as we celebrate the confirmation of the freedom of the people of Guinea-Bissau, and look forward to the freedom of Angola and Mozambique, the people of Portugal share with the African people the fruits of the heroic armed struggle which the liberation movements were obliged to undertake in the African Territories. You are no doubt aware that the leaders of the independent African States have lent their good offices to secure settlements.
When the white minority in South AFrican will abandon its dream of perpetual domination over the Africans, and when it is ready to seek, hopefully by concerted international action, to negotiate, with the genuine representatives of the overwhelming majority of the people, the destiny of the nation as a whole, I have no doubt that the African people of South Africa will show their traditional tolerance and magnanimity. I have no doubt that independent Africa will do all it can to facilitate a solution, as it has pledged many times -- for instance, in the Lusaka manifesto which was adopted by the Organization of African Unity and endorsed, almost unanimously, by the United Nations General Assembly.
That is the day we look forward to -- that is the outcome towards which we are striving. And I want to thank all of you in joining in this international effort.
General Assembly resolution: Credentials of representatives to the twenty-ninth session of the General Assembly.
A/RES/3206 (XXIX), 30 September 1974
The General Assembly,
Approves the first report of the Credentials Committee.
General Assembly resolution: Relationship between the United Nations and South Africa.
A/RES/3207 (XXIX), 30 September 1974
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 2636 A (xxv) of 13 November 1970, 2862 (XXVI) of 20 December 1971 and 2948 (XXVII) of 8 December 1972 and its decision of 5 October 1973, by which it decided to reject the credentials of South Africa.
Recalling that South Africa did not heed any of the aforementioned decisions and has continued to practise its policy of apartheid and racial discrimination against the majority of the population in South Africa,
Reaffirming, once again, that the policy of apartheid and racial discrimination of the Government of South Africa is a flagrant violation of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Noting the persistent refusal of South Africa to abandon its policy of apartheid and racial discrimination in compliance with relevant resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly,
Calls upon the Security Council to review the relationship between the United Nations and South Africa in the light of the constant violation by South Africa of the principles of the Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.