Apartheid Convention

[5] Following the election of South Africa's National Party in 1948 came a swell of prejudicial and racially charged policies.

This attention, coupled with the accumulating negative history, caused The Commission on Human Rights to focus increasingly on apartheid, making it a primary concern.

[5] The new Convention was the first to explicitly define apartheid, and then attempt to effectively criminalize what the ICERD had previously only prohibited.

This plenary meeting requested the secretary general to transmit the draft convention to the Commission on Human Rights.

This meeting further requested that the Secretary General transmit the revised draft Convention to the Special Committee on the Apartheid, and invited the Economic and Social Council to request the Commission on Human Rights to consider as a priority item the revised draft Convention and submit the results of its consideration to the 28th session of the General Assembly.

The second resolution on the draft convention on the suppression and punishment of the crime of apartheid took place in the 27th session of the General Assembly, 2085th plenary meeting, 15 November 1972.

It was originally adopted for the purpose of being able to prosecute criminals who were not citizens of the state but still committed acts which violated the laws of that territory of jurisdiction.

[10] The Organization of African Unity (OAU) recognized various liberation movements that were, “the authentic representatives of the overwhelming majority of the South African people.”[12] Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 recognized apartheid as a “grave breach” of the Protocol in 1977 regardless of geographic location.

The Commission served the purpose of granting amnesty to those who had violated human rights regulations during the time of apartheid as well as aim to achieve reconciliation.