United Nations Photo

Headline Apartheid: The Tyranny of Racism Made Law

Caption Description In white-ruled South Africa, black people are denied their basic human and political rights; their labour is exploited, their lives segregated, precarious and fearful. In 1982 almost one million of them were to be transferred to another country - Swaziland - without their having any say in the matter whatsoever. That is the tyranny of apartheid, of racism made law, of a system under which a small white minority holds all economic and political power, and dictates in the minutest detail how and where the large black majority will live, work and die. It is this system of institutionalized racial discrimination which defies the principles of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that has set South Africa on a collision course with the rest of the world. It must be brought to an end before it erupts into a racial war between "whites" and "blacks" that would have tragic consequences for the whole world.

Container ships, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape. Trade plays a significant role in South Africa's economy. Its principal exports are gold, other minerals and agricultural goods; its principal imports, oil, electrical and transportation equipment. The UN General Assembly has called for mandatory, comprehensive sanctions against all trade with South Africa as the only means of achieving a peaceful end to the apartheid system. But the Security Council has been unable to impose such sanctions because of the negative votes of three permanent members: France, the United Kingdom and the United States. [Exact date unknown]

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Unique Identifier UN7557909

NICA ID 293547

Production Date 01/01/1982 9:18:06 AM

City/Location Port Elizabeth

Country South Africa

Credit UN Photo

File size 2.57 MB