Forced removals and crimes against humanity

Some further thoughts on my previous post:

The Surplus People Project - an NGO that has been in existence for many years - has produced extensive documentation on forced removals in South Africa.

Apartheid was defined a a crime against humanity by the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid - adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1973.

Article II of the Convention provides as follows:

For the purpose of the present Convention, the term 'the crime of apartheid', which shall include similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practiced in southern Africa, shall apply to the following inhumane acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them... 


[including]
...any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to a nationality...

...any measures including legislative measures, designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups... 

These latter provisions apply specifically to the legislation that deprived people of the South African nationality and to the creation of the so-called 'homelands'.