South African, Namibian and Palestinian victims’ advocates and lawyers will join international legal experts to encourage the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to call for recognition of all apartheid victims in a treaty under negotiations at the United Nations. The ACHPR, an independent human rights mechanism established by the African Charter on Human & Peoples’ Rights, a binding African Union treaty, is holding its 85th Ordinary Session in Banjul, The Gambia.
At an event on the sidelines of the session on Sunday, 19 October at 3pm titled “Recognizing Apartheid Victims in the UN Draft Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity,” advocates and legal experts will discuss the definition of apartheid in the proposed treaty on crimes against humanity (CAH). If ratified, the treaty would obligate governments to prevent and punish CAH. The advocates will inform ACHPR members, government officials, and civil society that the draft treaty codifies apartheid using an outdated definition that could exclude victims, including Palestinians, from recognition. They will also call for action to address the long record of impunity for apartheid and its multifaceted harms in South Africa and Namibia.
“The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which has condemned apartheid committed against Palestinians, has a key role to play in ensuring that the apartheid provision in the draft treaty on crimes against humanity accounts for all its victims,” said Dr. Munir Nuseibah, Director of the Al Quds Human Rights Clinic at the School of Law, who will present at the event. “Clarifying that the treaty’s apartheid provision includes recognition of present-day victims, such as Palestinians, would be an important step forward.”
Discussions on the draft treaty are a place to warn the world of the harmful legacy of discriminatory crimes against humanity and to call for states to commit to a treaty that facilitates redress and reparations for victims. “Victims of institutionalized, discriminatory oppression need recognition to receive holistic reparations and to heal. For Palestinian victims, this requires holding perpetrators accountable for present injustices as well as for injustices that started well before October 2023,” said Lisa Davis, law professor at CUNY School of Law and Special Adviser on Gender and Other Discriminatory Crimes to the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor. “Apartheid charges under international criminal law could facilitate reparations.”
“While the world recognized apartheid as a crime against humanity decades ago, no one has been held accountable in South Africa or Namibia,” said Wendy Isaack, Senior Gender Justice & International Law Fellow at MADRE and moderator of the event. “Even the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa failed to bring justice for the multifaceted harms faced by apartheid victims, particularly black women. Conversations on the draft treaty on crimes against humanity at the U.N. must be informed by these victims’ experiences.”
