Apartheid (law)

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Apartheid is an internationally defined crime against humanity ( English crime of apartheid ). The definition emerged during the struggle against legal and factual discrimination against racially defined groups in South Africa in the second half of the 20th century. Since this crime was generalized and codified in several international treaties , the definition has also been applied legally to comparable situations outside of South Africa. The South African apartheid was abolished 1994th Today the term is also used in parlance for all types of ethnically or racially motivated segregation , in which the state authority in a country is abused to restrict the social and civil rights of a group.

Historic apartheid in South Africa

The term apartheid in Afrikaans means separation. He gave the name to a regime of racial discrimination that was formally introduced by the Boer National Party of South Africa in 1948 and lasted until the end of their rule in 1994. The apartheid regime was based on dividing the population into four ethnically defined groups: whites, blacks, coloreds and Asians. On this basis, separate living areas and school systems (of different quality) were prescribed. The right to vote was essentially reserved for whites. Any sexual contact ( Immorality Act ) and marriages between members of different ethnically defined groups were prohibited by law, and violations were severely punished. In addition, there were numerous forms of “small apartheid” in everyday life, such as separate compartments in public transport, reservation of public parks and beaches for whites, separate entrances in public buildings, hospitals, banks and toilets.

UN anti-apartheid convention

Apartheid was first defined as a crime in the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid , which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 30, 1973 and which came into force in 1976 after 76 countries had acceded to it. A number of states had not acceded to the convention by 2010: Australia , Germany , France , Israel , Italy , Canada , New Zealand , the Netherlands , the United Kingdom and the United States .

In this international treaty, the apartheid crime is defined as follows , with explicit reference to similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa: “Inhumane acts carried out with the aim of establishing and maintaining the rule of a racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and to suppress [the latter] systematically ”. This general clause is carried out in more specific circumstances, including among others:

  • denial of the right to life and liberty through murder , torture , arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment
  • the deliberate creation of living conditions aimed at bringing about the physical destruction of such groups
  • , legislative and other measures aimed at the participation to prevent such groups in the political, social and cultural life
  • Measures aimed at racially segregating the population (through the creation of reservations and ghettos , the prohibition of mixed marriages and the expropriation of property)
  • Exploitation of the work of a racially defined group, particularly through forced labor
  • Persecution of organizations and people because they oppose apartheid

Statute of the International Criminal Court

The Rome Statute establishing an International Criminal Court brought the apartheid crime to the jurisdiction of that court. The statute was adopted at a state conference in Rome in 1998 and has since been signed by 139 states and ratified by 114 states. It has been in force since 2002. However, a number of states including the United States , Russia , the People's Republic of China , India , Pakistan , Turkey and Israel have not yet become contracting parties because they oppose the International Criminal Court on various grounds. Israel first signed, but then withdrew its signature.

The apartheid crime is defined in Article 7, Paragraph 2h of the Rome Statute of 1998 as follows: “Inhuman acts of a similar nature to the crimes against humanity mentioned in paragraph 1, carried out by a racial group in the context of an institutionalized systematic regime The oppression and domination of one or more other groups are committed with the intention of maintaining this regime ”. Such acts, regardless of where and by whom they were committed, can also be prosecuted in Germany. This is to be ensured by the International Criminal Code , whose Section 7, Paragraph 1, No. 10 states that anyone who “in the context of an extensive or systematic attack on a civilian population” is prosecuting an “identifiable group or community by telling it from political withdraws or significantly restricts basic human rights for racial, national, ethnic, cultural or religious reasons, for reasons of gender or for other reasons recognized as inadmissible under the general rules of international law .

use cases

Through the two international treaties mentioned above, the term apartheid has been legally generalized and its scope has been removed from its limitation to South Africa and its historical context. Since then, the term apartheid has been used, with a rather loose analogy, in relation to various problems, for example the immigration sector (“social apartheid”) and the health sector (“medical apartheid”). The analogy is more specific with regard to the oppression of indigenous peoples, for example in China.

The apartheid accusation has also been raised against Israel on various occasions, including within the country. Among the most prominent Israelis, in connection with the occupation and settlement policy of the Palestinian territories conquered in 1967, at different points in time were the former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and other former ministers and senior state officials and members of the military. Former US President Jimmy Carter as well as John Kerry and Sigmar Gabriel have made similar statements among top international politicians . Renowned international lawyers have analyzed the issue in more detail. Special Rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council such as John Dugard and Richard A. Falk, for example, have repeatedly taken the position that there are elements of apartheid in the Israeli-occupied territories. Israel has always rejected such criticism and criticized the UN Human Rights Council and the respective reporters as biased and partisan (see also criticism of the UN Human Rights Council ). The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 10 November 1975, the UN General Assembly designated the Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination and made Israel explicitly in a series with South Africa under apartheid and Rhodesia . After the collapse of the Eastern bloc , this resolution was withdrawn by the UN General Assembly on December 16, 1991 ( resolution 46/86 ). In 1998, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described Resolution 3379 as a “low point” in the history of the United Nations . In 2017, an opinion published by the UN Economic and Social Council for West Asia (ESCWA), which found that apartheid had been committed, sparked controversy: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres , who had not previously been consulted , ordered the publication to be withdrawn and the executive secretary responsible for the committee resigned from her position.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. July 18, 1976. University of Minnesota, Human Rights Library, at www1.umn.edu (English)
  2. ↑ Text of the Convention (English) ( Memento of November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), in: UN Treaty Collection, UNTC Retrieved on December 20, 2010
  3. ↑ International Criminal Court: text of the Statute (English) ( Memento of 23 January 2016 Internet Archive ), accessed on January 23, 2016
  4. ^ A World Alliance against Social Apartheid ( Memento of July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on December 19, 2010
  5. ^ Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, New York 2007
  6. ↑ Calum Macleod and Lijia Macleod: China reviews 'apartheid' for 900m peasants. In: The Independent June 10, 2001 ; Retrieved December 20, 2010
  7. ↑ In 1976 interview, Rabin likens settler ideologues to 'cancer,' warns of 'apartheid', in: Times of Israel, September 25, 2015, accessed March 23, 2017 (English)
  8. ↑ a b Mehdi Hasan: Top Israelis Have Warned of Apartheid, So Why the Outrage at a UN Report? in: The Intercept from March 22, 2017 (English)
  9. ↑ Israel's Palestinian policy: Gabriel reaps criticism after comparing apartheid. In: Spiegel Online . March 15, 2012, accessed January 4, 2017 .
  10. ^ Author of UN report on "Apartheid System" in Israel resigns, in: DW.com of March 18, 2017