Apartheid as a Crime Against Humanity: A Submission to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (original) (raw)

Law. From 1996-1998 I was a consultant in international law to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. These introductory comments, and the contents of the submission itself, do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Commission. I am grateful to all who contributed to the drafting of the submission, in particular Margaret DeGuzman and the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Law Clinic at Yale Law School, and Scott Christensen of Hughs, Hubbard & Reed and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. 1. See, e.g., Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limits to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, 660 U.N.T.S. 195, reprinted in 8 I.L.M. 68 (1969) [hereinafter Statutory Limitations Convention], discussed infra at note 65. 2. "Persecution based on race" is a part of every definition of crimes against humanity that has been considered since the first definition articulated in the Nuremberg Charter. See infra notes 31-49 and accompanying text. 3. See infra note 101 and accompanying text. [Vol. 20:267 10. See infra note 116; 2 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, 510-23 (1998) (reporting on the TRC's special investigation into biological and chemical warfare). To provide genocide, one must show that certain acts were committed with "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such." See infra note 106.