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Crime of apartheid

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This article is about the crime of Apartheid as defined in international law. For the system of racial segregation that formerly existed in South Africa, see Apartheid. For other uses, see Apartheid (disambiguation).

The crime of apartheid is defined by the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as inhumane acts of a character similar to other crimes against humanity "committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime".[1]

On 30 November 1973, the United Nations General Assembly opened for signature and ratification The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.[2] It defined the crime of apartheid as "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".[3]

According to Human Rights Watch and legal scholar Miles Jackson, apartheid is also prohibited in customary international law although there is still debate as to whether it is criminalized as well.[4][5] Legal scholars Gerhard Kemp and Windell Nortje noted that in 2021, two individuals (former members of apartheid South Africa's security police) became the first persons ever to be prosecuted for the crime of apartheid under customary international law.[6]

History

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Further information: Allegations of apartheid by country

The term apartheid, from Afrikaans for 'apartness', was the official name of the South African system of racial segregation which existed after 1948. Complaints about the system were brought to the United Nations as early as 12 July 1948 when Padmanabha Pillai, the representative of India to the United Nations, circulated a letter to the secretary-general expressing his concerns over treatment of ethnic Indians within the Union of South Africa.[7] As it became more widely known, South African apartheid was condemned internationally as unjust and racist and many decided that a formal legal framework was needed in order to apply international pressure on the South African government.

In 1971, the Soviet Union and Guinea together submitted early drafts of a convention to deal with the suppression and punishment of apartheid.[8] In 1973, the General Assembly of the United Nations agreed on the text of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (ICSPCA).[2] The convention has 31 signatories and 107 parties. The convention came into force in 1976 after 20 countries had ratified it. They were: Benin, Bulgaria, Chad, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Guinea, Hungary, Iraq, Mongolia, Poland, Qatar, Somalia, Syria, the USSR, the United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, and Yugoslavia.[9]

"As such, apartheid was declared to be a crime against humanity, with a scope that went far beyond South Africa. While the crime of apartheid is most often associated with the racist policies of South Africa after 1948, the term more generally refers to racially based policies in any state."[10]

Seventy-six other countries subsequently signed on, but a number of nations, including Western democracies, have neither signed nor ratified the ICSPCA, including Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.[11] In explanation of the US vote against the convention, Ambassador Clarence Clyde Ferguson Jr. said: "[W]e cannot... accept that apartheid can in this manner be made a crime against humanity. Crimes against humanity are so grave in nature that they must be meticulously elaborated and strictly construed under existing international law..."[12]

In 1977, Addition Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions designated apartheid as a grave breach of the protocol and a war crime. There are 169 parties to the protocol.[13]

The International Criminal Court provides for individual criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity, including the crime of apartheid.[14]

The ICC came into being on 1 July 2002, and can only prosecute crimes committed on or after that date. The court can generally only exercise jurisdiction in cases where the accused is a national of a state party, the alleged crime took place on the territory of a state party, or a situation is referred to the court by the United Nations Security Council. The ICC exercises complimentary jurisdiction. Many of the member states have provided their own national courts with universal jurisdiction over the same offenses and do not recognize any statute of limitations for crimes against humanity.[15] As of July 2008, 106 countries are states parties (with Suriname and Cook Islands set to join in October 2008), and a further 40 countries have signed but not yet ratified the treaty.[16] However, many of the world's most populous nations, including China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Pakistan are not parties to the court and therefore are not subject to its jurisdiction, except by security council referral.

ICSPCA definition of the crime of apartheid

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Main article: International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid

Article II of the ICSPCA defines the crime of apartheid as:

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 practiced in southern Africa, shall apply to the following inhumane 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:

  1. Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of person
    1. By murder of members of a racial group or groups;
    2. 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;
    3. By arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group or groups;
  2. Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part;
  3. 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 recognised 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;
  4. 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;
  5. Exploitation of the labour of the members of a racial group or groups, in particular by submitting them to forced labour;
  6. Persecution of organizations and persons, by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid.
— International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, Article II[2][3]
 
Signatories to the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid: parties in dark green, signed but not ratified in light green, non-members in grey

UN definition of racial discrimination

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Main article: International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

According to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD),

the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.[17]

This definition does not make any difference between discrimination based on ethnicity and race, in part because the distinction between the two remains debatable among anthropologists.[18] Similarly, in British law the phrase racial group means "any group of people who are defined by reference to their race, colour, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin".[19]

ICC definition of the crime of apartheid

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Main articles: Rome Statute and International Criminal Court

Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines the crime of apartheid as:[20]

The 'crime of apartheid' means inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.

Court Cases

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The International Court of Justice in its 2024 case on Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, gave an advisory opinion[21][22] which found that Israel was in breach of Article 3 of International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, including "racial segregation and apartheid". HRW declared that "World Court Finds Israel Responsible for Apartheid".[23]

References

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  1. ^ "Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 1998". legal.un.org.
  2. ^ a b c "Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid". United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law. Archived from the original on 2013-12-09. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  3. ^ a b "International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid" (PDF). United Nations. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-10-17. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  4. ^ Jackson, Miles (2022). "The Definition of Apartheid in Customary International Law and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination". International & Comparative Law Quarterly. 71 (4): 831–855. doi:10.1017/S0020589322000379. ISSN 0020-5893.
  5. ^ Baldwin, Clive (9 July 2021). "Human Rights Watch Responds: Reflections on Apartheid and Persecution in International Law". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  6. ^ Gerhard Kemp & Windell Nortje https://academic.oup.com/jicj/article/21/2/405/7231934
  7. ^ Pillai, Padmanabha (12 July 1948). "Letter from the representative of India to the Secretary-General concerning the treatment of Indians in South Africa". Archived from the original on 3 June 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  8. ^ Olav Stokke and Carl Widstrand, ed. (1973). Southern Africa Vol. 1: United Nations-Organization of African Unity Conference Oslo 9–14 April 1973. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  9. ^ "Treaties and international agreements registered or filed and recorded with the Secretariat of the United Nations" (PDF). VOLUME 1015. 1976. p.244. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  10. ^ Morton, Jeffrey S. (2000). The International Law Commission of the United Nations. University of South Carolina Press. p. 27. ISBN 1-57003-170-3.
  11. ^ "United Nations Treaty Collection". treaties.un.org. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012.
  12. ^ Statement by Ambassador Clarence Clyde Ferguson Jr. before General Assembly in explanation of vote on Apartheid Convention, 30 November 1973. Review of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights: Hearings before the Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (1974) p.58
  13. ^ See Article 85(4) and 85(5) of Additional Protocol 1, dated 8 June 1977 [1] Archived 2008-12-10 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court specifically lists the "crime of apartheid" as one of eleven recognized crimes against humanity.
  15. ^ "Database of National Implementing Legislation". Archived from the original on 6 July 2008. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
  16. ^ United Nations. Multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General: Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Archived 2008-05-09 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 16 July 2007.
  17. ^ UN International Convention on the Elimination of All of Racial Discrimination Archived 2021-04-23 at the Wayback Machine, New York 7 March 1966
  18. ^ Metraux, A. (1950). "United nations Economic and Security Council Statement by Experts on Problems of Race". American Anthropologist. 53 (1): 142–145. doi:10.1525/aa.1951.53.1.02a00370.
  19. ^ "Racist and Religious Crime – CPS Prosecution Policy". The CPS. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  20. ^ United Nations (2002). "Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Part 2, Article 7". Archived from the original on 12 July 2007. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
  21. ^ LEGAL CONSEQUENCES ARISING FROM THE POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF ISRAEL IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM, 19 JULY 2024, ADVISORY OPINION [2]
  22. ^ "World Court Finds Israel Responsible for Apartheid". Human Rights Watch. 2024-07-19. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  23. ^ "World Court Finds Israel Responsible for Apartheid". Human Rights Watch. 19 July 2024. Archived from the original on August 21, 2024. Retrieved 2024-08-26.

Further reading

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Look up apartheid in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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