Non-Aligned Movement and the Struggle Against Apartheid http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.nuun1984_20 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Non-Aligned Movement and the Struggle Against Apartheid Alternative title Notes and Documents - United Nations Centre Against ApartheidNo. 18/84 Author/Creator United Nations Centre against Apartheid; Chhabra, Hari Sharan Publisher United Nations, New York Date 1984-11-00 Resource type Reports Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1961 - 1984 Source Northwestern University Libraries Description NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT AND THE STRUGGLE AGAINST APARTHEID PRIOR TO THE FIRST NON-ALIGNED SUMMIT IN BELGRADE. THE BELGRADE SUMMIT OF THE NON-ALIGNED, 1961. FOUNDING OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY. THE CAIRO SUMMIT OF THE NON-ALIGNED, 1964. THE LUSAKA SUMMIT, 1970. THE ALGIERS SUMMIT, 1973. THE COLOMBO SUMMIT, 1976. THE HAVANA SUMMIT, 1979. THE NEW DELHI SUMMIT, 1983. EFFORTS OF THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT AT ISOLATING SOUTH AFRICA IN THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS. PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE. Format extent 23 page(s) (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.nuun1984_20 http://www.aluka.org UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS CENTRE AGAINST APARTHEID NOTES AND DOCUMENTS* NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT AND THE STRUGGLE AGAINST APARTHEID by Hart Sharan Chhabra Noverber 1984 .... .. , ;'.'ED IT , MAY - 6 1985 !Note: Mr. Chhabra is the editor of Africa Diary published in New Delhi, India. He has written extensively on African issues. The views expressed in this paper-are those of the aiithir_./ *All material in these Notes and Documents may be freely reprinted. Acknowledgement, together with a copy of the publication containing the reprint, would be apprpciated. United Nations, New York 10017 38/84 I. NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT AND THE STRUGGLE AGAINST APARTHEID PRIOR TO THE FIRST NON-ALIGNED SUMMIT IN BELGRADE The spirit of freedom and equality burns fierce in the human heart, yet there is no lack of agents to suppress it. Even in the last quarter of the twentieth century, with its mind-boggling technological advances, where the equality of all men has come to be accepted as an undisputed norm, in one corner of the world, in South Africa, prevails a system based on the outdated concept of the supremacy of one particular race over the others. And the hateful system of apartheid remains as un ugly scab on the face of humanity, deriving sustenance from the paltry economic and other narrow interests of its few powerful backers. But peoples who once underwent the ignominy of being a subject race and who had to fight bitterly to throw off the colonial yoke cannot bear the persistence of apartheid. It is no wonder, then, that the Non-Aligned Movement, which brings together nations that have experienced the humiliation of subjugation and the thrill of attaining freedom, should fight to free the black majority in South Africa from the racial burden of apartheid. The Non-Aligned Movement, founded on the principle of equality of nations and men, has striven for the elimination of all forms of colonialism, exploitation and discrimination. It believes with firm conviction that the policies of racial discrimination as institutionalized by the Government of South Africa, so as to subjugate the black population politically and economically for the benefit of the white minority, are repugnant to the conscience of mankind, violate the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and are contrary to the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations. Even before the Non-Aligned Movement took formal shape, liberation of the people of South Africa from the clutches of white minority rule and the establishment of a non-racial democratic society in which all men and women would live in dignity and as equal citizens had been the desire of the freedom- loving peoples of Asia, Africa and elsewhere. As early as 1927, at the International Congress Against Imperialism held in Brussels, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and others championed the cause of freedom and equality. Mahatama Gandhi's 20 years' sojourn in racist South Africa, where he fought for the rights of the blacks, is a saga in the history of the struggle against racial discrimination. In his address to the Asian Relations Conference in New Delhi on 23 March 1947, Pandit Nehru said: "We of Asia have a special responsibility to the people of Africa. We must help them to their rightful place in the human family". Through this historic clarion call, an Asian leader for the first time expressed Asia's solidarity with the people of Africa. A background paper on racial problems prepared for the Conference, though it did not specifically mention South Africa by name, said that "the concepts of racial superiority and practices of racial discrimination were relentlessly being swept into the dustbin of history" and that the searching review that was being made of them at the United Nations and to a certain degree in this Conference "was already fixing their allotted place in the museum of the obsolete". Bandung Conference At the Asian-African Nations Conference held from 18 to 24 April 1955, often called the Bandung Conference after its location, the obnoxious racial policies of South Africa came in for strong condemnation. The Conference was organized on the initiative of Indonesia and supported by Burma, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan. It was attended by 24 other Asian and African countries. The Conference reflected the dissatisfaction of the sponsors with what they regarded as a reluctance of the Western Powers to consult them on matters concerning Asia and Africa. The purpose of the Conference was also to mobilize the forces of Asia and Africa to promote peace and freedom. It was the presence at the Conference of two South African revolutionary leaders, Moses Kotane and Maulvi I.A. Cachalia, which in many ways focused world attention on the cause of the struggle against apartheid. From then on the struggle began receiving more and more support in Asia and Africa and in the rest of the world. At Bandung, Kotane and Cachalia met Prime Minister Nehru and President Nasser and through them were introduced to the other leaders who attended the Conference. In a 32-page memorandum to the Conference, the two South African leaders appealed to the Asian and African delegates: "to use their good offices internationally to persuade other civilized and freedom loving nations of the world to prevail on the Government of the Union of South Africa to abandon its unjust and disastrous policy of apartheid and racial discrimination. We are convinced and confident that the Government of South Africa could be forced to reconsider its reactionary and inhuman policy if all the nations who do not approve of policies and practices of racial oppression and discrimination, particularly the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, would boldly take a firm stand against such practices". In his inaugural address, the then Prime Minister of Indonesia, Ali Sastroamidjojo, in his capacity as the President of the Bandung Conference said: "Next to colonialism, we meet racialism as an important source of tension. Racialism in fact is often if not always one aspect of colonialism based on feelings of superiority of the dominating group. Discrimination, however, based on differences of colour is contrary to the fundamental human rights and to the essential equality of mankind, as rightly expressed in the Charter of the United Nations". President Nasser told the Conference that the treatment by any State of any national ethnic group had ceased to be a matter of domestic jurisdiction as certain States advocated. It has become a question of international jurisdiction and a matter of world concern. He quoted the United Nations Commission on Racial Situation in the Union of South Africa, which said: "The doctrine of racial superiority on which the apartheid policy was based, is scientifically false, extremely dangerous to international peace and security and contrary to the dignity and worth of the human person". At the concluding session of the Conference Pandit Nehru said: "We have passed resolutions about conditions in this or that country. But I think there is nothing more terrible than the infinite tragedy of Africa in the past few hundred years. Everything else pales into insignificance when I think of the infinite tragedy of Africa ever since the days when millions of Africans were carried away as galley slaves to America and elsewhere, half of them dying in the galleys. We must accept responsibility for it, all of us, even though we ourselves were not directly involved. But unfortunately, in a different sense, even now the tragedy of Africa is greater than that of any other continent, whether it is racial or political.