Joel Carlson

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Joel Carlson (born 1926 in Johannesburg ; † November 25, 2001 in Manhasset ) was a white South African lawyer and opponent of apartheid . As a lawyer, he defended and supported many members of the opposition during the time of the South African apartheid system in court cases, some of which were internationally observed. In this context, he promoted global awareness of the political and human rights situation in South Africa at the time .

Life

Joel Carlson studied law at Witwatersrand University . He completed his studies with a law exam. There he made the acquaintance of his fellow student Nelson Mandela in the 1950s .

After graduating, he first worked as a clerk at the Bantu Commissioner's Court (special court for "non-whites"), where Africans (blacks) were convicted of offenses under the Pass Laws Act 1952. In 1954, under the influence of the decline of South African society, he ended this activity and opened his own law firm. As a result, Carlson worked as a defense lawyer for anti-apartheid activists and campaigned for human rights in his home country within the framework of the legal situation. His clients included Nelson Mandela, whose interests and those of his family he represented while in custody on Robben Island .

One of the persons legally represented by Joel Carlson in the past is the Namibian SWAPO politician Andimba Toivo ya Toivo , who was convicted on the basis of the Suppression of Communism Act and was one of the leading politicians in independent Namibia after 1990. Carlson describes in his book No neutral ground (1973) the abuse and physical torture perpetrated on Toivo ya Toivo in the headquarters of the security police ( Compol Buildings ). The lead investigator Swanepoel, as well as the police officers N. van Rensburg, R. van Rensburg, Piet Ferreira and others were involved.

In 1959 he made a slave labor system of the apartheid regime public, according to which arrested black South Africans were urged to do “voluntary” work on farms under slave conditions (so-called potato laborers ). The government initially denied the existence of this system. The arrests of those affected were based on the passport laws, which made staying in certain areas of South Africa without documents a criminal offense. The arrested persons were able to sign a "voluntary" contract to avert their punishment and were then taken to remote farms on trucks under surveillance and the use of force. In many cases, their relatives and previous employers were not informed of their stay there. Joel Carlson took up this forced labor system with a few habeas corpus lawsuits. According to those affected, they were forced to work on the farm under unspeakable hygienic conditions. General minimum standards for food and free medical care were not a guaranteed basis, but a non-binding recommendation to the farm operator. In this context, 24 individual complaints were filed with the Supreme Court in Pretoria . Judge Quartus de Wet found no legal basis for this practice, which government officials defended during the trial, citing the eviction of tramps from the cities.

In 1967 Joel Carlson defended 37 defendants from the annexed South West Africa (now Namibia). No other defense attorney had agreed to help the defendants. Although the death penalty on the basis of Terrorism Act and Suppression of Communism Act loomed, Carlson took advantage of a break in the negotiations to the United States to travel and there with the senators Edward Kennedy and Robert Kennedy , officials of the State Department and to meet the US Ambassador to the United Nations Arthur Joseph Goldberg . His defense strategy, supported by foreign lawyers, ultimately prevented the expected death sentences.

Because of his politically unpopular engagement, attacks with an incendiary bomb and gunfire were carried out on his house and office . His vehicle was also shot at. The authorities eventually revoked his South African passport. These threats led Joel Carlson and his family to leave the country. This step was taken on the basis of an order from the Minister of the Interior. In 1970, individual deportation orders were issued against 90 white and 56 non-white citizens of South Africa. At the direction of the minister, Carlson and his wife were given British passports and lost their South African citizenship as a result of this administrative act . On April 6, 1971, he left South Africa via Johannesburg's Jan Smuts Airport . His wife and children later followed him.

After his departure, Carlson settled in New York , where he initially worked as deputy district attorney in the borough of Queens . In this task he developed a program for a civil service (second chance) for convicted violent criminals as an alternative to imprisonment and headed the counseling office for harmed consumers. Carol Bernstein Ferry , Elizabeth (Betsy) Landis and Peter Weiss from the American Committee on Africa , and Charles Mandelstam, a South African lawyer, support him on his new start in New York .

After the end of apartheid, Joel Carlson returned to his home country for a visit. He came as a UN observer to the first democratic elections in 1994.

Joel Carlson died of leukemia in Manhasset's North Shore University Hospital at the age of 75 .

Functions and honors

Looking back on the 1967 trial, Herman Toivo ya Toivo wrote to him in a letter: "They saved us from the gallows of the apartheid regime".

family

Joel Carlson was married to Jeanette Carlson. His wife ran secret errands in South Africa to protect her husband from being watched by the apartheid regime.
The marriage resulted in the four children Meredith Carlson-Daly, Gabrielle Carlson, Jeremy Carlson and Adam Carlson. After entering the United States, he spent his private life in Great Neck ( Long Island , New York).

Fonts

  • The pass system and detention . South African Institute of Race Relations , Johannesburg 1970.
  • The dilemma of foreign investment in South Africa . In: The Black Sash . Vol. 15, No. 3, 1971 (PDF, 357 kB).
  • No neutral ground . 1st ed., Thomas Y. Crowell Company NY, New York 1973 (his autobiography).
  • South Africa - a police state . In: United Nations Unit on Apartheid, Department of Political and Security Council Affairs (Ed.): Notes and documents . 16/73, United Nations Center Against Apartheid, New York 1973.
  • Kenneth N. Carstens, Joel Carlson: Review of No Neutral Ground . In: Africa Today . 1974, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 88-90.
  • Review of No Neutral Ground . In: International Journal of African Historical Studies . 1975, Vol. 8, pp. 71-73.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jim Dwyer: Joel Carlson, 75, Lawyer Who Fought Apartheid in 50’s . Reported in The New York Times of December 4, 2001. at www.nytimes.com (English)
  2. ^ Ron Christenson: "Political trials in history: from antiquity to the present". Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1991, pp. 218-220
  3. ^ Carlson: No neutral ground . 1973, pp. 167-168
  4. ^ Ahmad Barakat: The Politics of Apartheid of the Government of South Africa. Maltreatment and torture of prisoners in South Africa . Report of September 26, 1972, United Nations, General Assembly (English, PDF document)
  5. ↑ Ahmad Barakat: Maltreatment and Torture of Prisoners in South Africa . In: Objective: Justice (United Nations Office of Public Information), Vol. 5, No. 1973, pp. 28-29
  6. ^ Joel Carlson: South Africa Today: The Security of the State vs. The Liberty of the Individual . In: Human Rights. Vol. 2, No. 2 (1972), pp. 125-138
  7. ^ SOUTH AFRICA: Off to the Farm . Time magazine from June 15, 1959 at www.time.com (English)
  8. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1971 . Johannesburg 1972, p. 70
  9. ^ Joel Carlson: No Neutral Ground . Acknowledgments. New York 1973
  10. ↑ Swarthmore College Peace Collection: Peter Weiss Collected Papers, 1949-1967 . on www.swarthmore.edu (English)
  11. ↑ Los Angeles Times: Joel Carlson, 75; Lawyer Who Fought Apartheid in 1950s . dated December 6, 2001. at www.articles.latimes.com (English)
  12. ↑ Joel Carlson Dies.Fought apartheid. Notification at www.courant.com dated December 4, 2001
  13. ^ Children of Activists Place Spotlight On Human Face of Rights Struggle. In: UConn Advance. February 14, 2000, University of Connecticut
personal data
SURNAME Carlson, Joel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African lawyer and anti-apartheid fighter
DATE OF BIRTH 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Johannesburg , South Africa
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 2001
Place of death Manhasset , USA