Apartheid

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Apartheid

• By
• Kate Pennington, Andrea Wangsanata, Shannon
  Feeney and Jane Lee

2
Apartheid Definitions

• Segregation the legal and political endorsement
  and institutionalization of discrimination.
• Racial segregation specifically a former policy
  of segregation and political and economic
  discrimination against non-European groups in the
  Republic of South Africa.
• 3. the systematic oppression and domination by
  one racial group over any other racial group or
  groups and committed with the intention of
  maintaining that regime.
• Puts apartheid in a group with torture, murder,
  enslavement, rape, sexual slavery.

3
History South Africa

• Four classes existed white, colored, Asian, and
  black.
• Blacks faced harshest segregation (74 of
  population)
• The South African Union (1910)
  institutionalized racism
• 1948 general election introduces apartheid as
  official policy
• The National Party formalized apartheid through
  laws
• The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act
  (1949) The Population Registration Act (1950)
  The Group Areas Act (1950) The Suppression of
  Communism Act (1950)

4
International Community Responds

• 1952 Apartheid discussed in terms of a
  fundamental violation of human rights.
• 1960 Sharpeville massacre
• 1963 Voluntary arms embargo commissioned The
  International Covenant on the Suppression and
  Punishment of Apartheid (1973)
• Defined apartheid for the first time as a crime
  against humanity. 
• Article 3 of the Convention states that all
  individuals involved in the practice of apartheid
  are guilty of a crime
• But, binding only for those ratifying (primarily
  non-Western)

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Explaining Apartheid

• Historical (Political) power struggle between
  the Afrikaners and the British culminating in the
  Boer War (1899-1902) left Afrikaner nationalists
  fearing the possibility of the British
  stabilizing their power base by extending the
  vote to non-whites. Afrikaner nationalists
  deliberately eliminated all non-whites from
  having any input into the political system.
• Religious The Nationalist Party leaders
  justified apartheid as being based on Christian
  principles of fairness and justice.
• Economic Someone needed to do the difficult,
  dirty jobs, particularly in the mining of gold.

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Thesis

• Apartheid exists today around the world in many
  contexts.
• Labeling segregation as apartheid brings
  international attention to the issue,
  accelerating international pressure for action.

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• The Jim Crow Laws
• American Apartheid

1876 -1965 De jure segregation in all public
facilities, with a "separate but equal" status
for black Americans and members of other
non-white racial groups.
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Jim Crow Laws

• Segregation of public schools, public places and
  public transportation
• State constitutions had clauses giving local
  jurisdictions the right to regulate where members
  of certain races could live
• Anti-miscegenation laws prohibited whites and
  non-whites from marrying each other.
• The voting rights of blacks were systematically
  restricted or denied through suffrage laws.

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Violence

• Blacks who violated Jim Crow norms, risked their
  homes, their jobs, even their lives. Whites could
  physically beat Blacks with impunity.

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Key Differences between South Africa and the U.S.

• In the United States after the American Civil War
  (1861 - 1865), there was never a class of blacks
  who were not citizens.
• Blacks are a minority in the United States, but a
  majority in South Africa.
• There were no "homelands" in the United States
  and families were not separated as they were in
  South Africa by not allowing men to bring their
  families with them to the areas where they
  worked.

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Key Differences between South Africa and the U.S.

• In South Africa, voting rights were denied to
  blacks outright, by denying them citizenship. In
  the United States, denial of voting rights was
  enforced by local custom, by lynching and other
  forms of violence, or by poll taxes and selective
  enforcement of literacy requirements.

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The Caste System in India
4 Principal Varnas
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The Dalits

• 165 million people
• 2/3 are illiterate
• 1/2 are landless
• Only 7 have access to safe drinking water,
  electricity, and toilets
• Work the undesirable jobs in society, making less
  than a 1 a day
• Cannot intermarry with other castes
• Abused by police and upper caste community
  members
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v15elGwkFUYE

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Governments Response

• Untouchables term abolished in 1950 in Indias
  Constitution
• Prime Minister Singh said caste system was
  comparable to apartheid system in South Africa
• Indian Solicitor General flatly denied that caste
  discrimination was something the outside world
  should care about
• Government first opposed the inclusion of caste
  on the UNs conferences agenda
• Argued caste and race are not synonymous
• Have implemented affirmative action plans
• Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989
• Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1995

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Apartheid?

• Clear example of segregation due to social status
• Clear violation of human rights
• State does not do enough to enforce policies to
  protect individuals

• Government argues that practice is not a form of
  racial and is not sanctioned
• Legitimized by Hindu religion
• Lower castes emulate upper castes

VS.
There is only one caste humanity
Pampa,
Indian poet
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Israel and PalestineGaza and the West Bank
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Current Issues

• Separate roads, license plates (roadblocks and
  checkpoints)
• Family unification denied for Palestinians but
  not for Jews
• Freedom of movement denied
• No right of return for Palestinians to West Bank
• Un-equal allocation of funds
• Currently 80 of families in Gaza rely on
  humanitarian aid.

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The Wall

• Israels West Bank barrier is a wall running over
  400 miles in the west bank annexing nearly 50 of
  the West Bank, creating ghettos.
• Effect Devastating on Palestinian life - loss of
  land, water and resources.
• Access gates restrict movement
• International Court of Justice deems it illegal.

Blah
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Apartheid? Yes.

• "Can it seriously be denied that the purpose of
  such action is to establish and maintain
  domination by one racial group (Jews) over
  another racial group (Palestinians) and
  systematically oppressing them? Israel denies
  that this is its intention or purpose. But such
  an intention or purpose may be inferred from the
  actions described in this report."
• -John Dugard, the UN's special rapporteur on
  human rights in the Palestinian territories
• By Jimmy Carter

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Apartheid? No.

• Israel is a majority-rule democracy with equal
  rights for all citizens.
• Prejudice exists everywhere but is opposed by law
• West Bank and Gaza are not governed by Israel
• Occupation is brutalising and corrupting both
  Palestinians and Israelis... but it is not
  apartheid. Palestinians are not oppressed on
  racial grounds as Arabs, but, rather, as
  competitors until now, at the losing end in a
  national/religious conflict for land. -Benjamin
  Pogrund

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Conclusions and Questions