Apartheid in international law
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The crime of apartheid is defined by the 2002 Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998Michael P. Scharf (August 1998)''Results of the R ...
as inhumane acts of a character similar to other
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
"committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and
domination Domination or dominant may refer to: Society * World domination, which is mainly a conspiracy theory * Colonialism in which one group (usually a nation) invades another region for material gain or to eliminate competition * Chauvinism in which ...
by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime". 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 The 1973 United Nations International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid was the first binding international treaty which declared the crime of apartheid and racial segregation under international law."Interna ...
.International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
, retrieved on 10 October 2011.
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". According to Human Rights Watch and legal scholar Miles Jackson, apartheid is also prohibited in
customary international law Customary international law is an aspect of international law involving the principle of custom. Along with general principles of law and treaties, custom is considered by the International Court of Justice, jurists, the United Nations, and its ...
although there is still debate as to whether it is criminalized as well.


History

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. As it became more widely known, South African apartheid was condemned internationally as unjust and
racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
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. 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). 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. "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." 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. In explanation of the US vote against the convention, Ambassador
Clarence Clyde Ferguson Jr. Clarence Clyde Ferguson Jr. (4 November 1924 – 21 December 1983) was a professor of law and a United States Ambassador to Uganda.Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007 Having experienced the horrors of World Wa ...
said: " 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..." 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. The International Criminal Court provides for individual criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity, including the crime of apartheid. 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. As of July 2008, 106 countries are
states parties A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal perso ...
(with
Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
and Cook Islands set to join in October 2008), and a further 40 countries have signed but not yet ratified the treaty.United Nations. ''Multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
''. Accessed 16 July 2007.
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

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


UN definition of racial discrimination

According to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), This definition does not make any difference between discrimination based on
ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
and race, in part because the distinction between the two remains debatable among anthropologists. 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".


ICC definition of the crime of apartheid

Article 7 of the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998Michael P. Scharf (August 1998)''Results of the R ...
defines crimes against humanity as:
;Article 7 ;Crimes against humanity
Later in Article 7, the crime of apartheid is defined as:
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.


References


Further reading

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External links


Human Sciences Research Council: Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law. Cape Town 2009

Richard Falk:Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Report to the UN General Assembly, 30.August 2010, sec. 5

Human Rights Watch Report: Separate and Unequal. Israel’s Discriminatory Treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, December 19, 2010
{{International human rights legal instruments Racial segregation
Apart Apart may refer to * "Apart" (The Cure song), by The Cure on their 1992 album ''Wish'' * ''Apart'' (album) (1995), by Paul Schütze * "Apart" (Brandy song), by Brandy on her 2002 album ''Full Moon'' * ''Apart'' (film), 2011 American drama * ' ...
International opposition to apartheid in South Africa
Apart Apart may refer to * "Apart" (The Cure song), by The Cure on their 1992 album ''Wish'' * ''Apart'' (album) (1995), by Paul Schütze * "Apart" (Brandy song), by Brandy on her 2002 album ''Full Moon'' * ''Apart'' (film), 2011 American drama * ' ...
Apartheid Rule by a subset of population