SOURCE The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. Available from http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm

INTRODUCTION The Apartheid Convention was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1973, but with a large number of abstentions by Western countries and negative votes from Portugal, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Apartheid is described, in article I, as a crime against humanity, a determination later confirmed in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The States Parties to the present Convention, Recalling the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, in which all Members pledged themselves to take joint and separate action in co-operation with the Organization for the achievement of universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for...