South Africans,especially the black native ones were constantly at loggerheads with theirgovernment over violations of their basic rights. This escalated to undesiredand unimaginable proportions and in the process drawing attention of theinternational community which took substantive measures to coerce the SouthAfrican government into toning down or doing away completely with its apartheidprinciples.Such measuresincluded economic sanctions like the oil embargo in the 1960s, the motion toexpell South Africa from the UN and the South Africa being barred fromparticipating in the Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee(IOC).Among thesesanctions were protests from human rights organizations within South Africawhich transitioned to riots and violence whenever the police shot at unarmedinnocent individuals in the name of quelling the violence.
Attempts by localentities to petition the government to drop their hard line stand on apartheidwere met with excesses in terms of force and brutality by the ruling regime.Politicalparties were no exception when it came to ‘racial cleansing’ by the dictatorialapartheid regime. Any form of gathering in the name of politics wasdeconstructed using excessive force by both the military and the police.Political prisoners were either killed, detained or sent to a place of noreturn.In light ofthese violations pertinent measures were required to tone down on the negativerhetoric, brutality, segregation and discrimination, hence the internationalhuman rights treaty. There were calls for dialogue among other measures butdialogue according to the African National Congress Leader then, Nelson Mandelawas the most viable and attainable approach.There were aseries of talks pitting the then government led by Frederick De Clerk and theANC led by Mandela and his associates. After long discussions, consensus wasbuilt on how to end apartheid based on a laid down procedure from the initialto the implementation stage.
The initialstages were talks and negotiations on how to bring all the parties on board toa round table and discuss extensively on how to bring apartheid to its finalconclusion. Political parties and their leadership were the main participantsin these negotiations including all the white-led, black-led, Indian-led andethnic-led political parties. After extensive negotiations and wideconsultations marred by challenges, consensus was built. The implementation stage included a lift onthe ban of non-white political parties, a new constitution complete with thebill of rights, free fair, transparent and credible elections, release ofpolitical prisoners, an inclusive government with opportunities for all, theend to all violence related protests, on victimization of the parties involvedand the creation of a truth, justice and reconciliation commission.The Human Rights Violations:There werenumerous human rights violations in South Africa at the time these include:-The ban ofnon-white political parties.-Politicaldetention and exile on political prisoners.-The right topeaceful assembly was violated by violent crowd dispersion tactics by thepolice and military.
-Segregation inall social places including transport, education, restaurants and sportingevents.Linkages Of Violations To The Human Rights Treaty:Violation of Civil and Political Rights Treaty: Any form of public gathering that took apolitical twist was deconstructed using crude and violent crowd dispersiontechniques.Non-white political parties were also banned.Violation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:-Africans werenot accorded the opportunity to learn in the best schools, colleges oruniversities.-Africans werenot given the opportunity to indulge in white collar jobs let alone join tradeunions.-Africans weresegregated and not allowed to mingle with whites at any available opportunity.Violation of Discrimination Against Women Treaty:African womenwere made to work under harsh conditions with the same work load as their malecounterparts. The same women were raped and tortured in the glare of thegovernment of the day.
They were also not accorded the same opportunities thattheir white counterparts enjoyed i.e. maternity leave. Violation of Racial Discrimination Treaty:Black Africansof South African descent were racially profiled in all spheres of the societyfrom having their own public toilets, competing against each other in sportsand not participating in elections.
They were also brought to book wheneverthey infringed upon the white man’s territory.OUTCOMEBlack South Africans were given opportunities insports where before they were not allowed to participate. They were also giveneducation, business to work unlike before where they only worked as slaves,they were given right to land ownership and other more and that attributes tothe South Africa’s apex position in African economies.South Africa has been acase study especially Mandela’s inability to hold a grudge against the whitesafter all they had put him and whole of South African people through. Countriesthat went through or are still going through a similar ordeal can drawinspirations from this great man Mandela. This also proved that injusticesomewhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Descent housing was availedfor the Africans, Trade Unions were formed such as the Tripartite Alliancewhich was formed after the banning of their political organizations unlikebefore where there was police brutality on trade unionists for example thearrest of six leading women trade union activists in 1981 among the other formsof government sanctions harassment. Social welfareinstitutions were created to protect them from social harassment and to elevatetheir living standards and this made the life of an average South Africancatapulted to desirable heights.
