The United Nations and apartheid : a source appraisal (1946-1976)

Abstract

Apartheid is a system of racial classification unlike no other that existed in South Africa from 1948-1994. Before apartheid, South Africa had long practised racial discrimination. Indeed, at its very first meeting in 1946, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly (GA) had deliberated on South Africa’s unequal racial policies but to no avail. In 1960, the Security Council (SC) then took matters into its own hands after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa, but still not much progress was made in addressing South Africa’s racial policies. The Western powers, specifically the United States of America (US), United Kingdom (UK) and France, were allies of the apartheid government and opposed direct measures against the racist regime. However, in the 1960s, each Western power began to confront South Africa in its own way. Even then, the UN made little headway. For instance, the Afro-Asian bloc, supported by the Soviets and Latin America, could not pressure the Western states into expelling South Africa from the UN until 1973, when the GA finally expelled the South Africa delegation. After the Soweto Riots in 1976 more changes occurred in the UN’s position on and approach to the apartheid question than had been achieved in the previous decades and more pressure was brought to bear on South Africa. In the end, however, the UN proved to be a rather limited partner in the fight against apartheid by 1976.