ADVOCATES, GOVERNMENT DISCUSS APARTHEID ACCOUNTABILITY STATEGY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Wendy Isaack, MADRE

18 June, 2025

wendy_gpobservatory@protonmail.com;

+27 64 879 8411, X: @IsaackWendy

Draft Crimes Against Humanity Treaty Presents Chance to Call for Justice Internationally

Johannesburg – Legal experts and victims’ advocates are joining South African officials for a conference June 19-20 on the future of accountability for apartheid. Convened by MADRE, an international feminist organization and co-hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, attendees are discussing how to ensure the apartheid provision in the draft international treaty on crimes against humanity will contribute to justice for victims. Participants include government officials, lawyers representing South African apartheid victims, Palestinian and women’s rights advocates, activists confronting persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and supporters of gender justice in Afghanistan.

“While the world recognized apartheid as a crime against humanity decades ago, there is still a struggle for accountability,” said Lisa Davis, a professor of law and conference participant. “Discussions at the U.N. on the draft crimes against humanity treaty must underscore how damaging apartheid is and why victims need recognition and redress if societies are to heal.”

“The debates on the draft treaty should build on South Africa’s and other African governments’ efforts to ensure accountability for apartheid,” said Wendy Isaack of MADRE. She pointed to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights November resolution calling states “not to aid and abet … crimes against humanity, including apartheid” against Palestinians. She added, “these efforts also include South Africa’s argument before the International Court of Justice in February 2024 that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

“Victims of institutionalized, discriminatory oppression need recognition to receive holistic reparations. For Palestinian victims, this requires holding perpetrators accountable for present injustices as well as for injustices that started well before October 2023,” continued Isaack. “Apartheid charges facilitate that recognition.”

“Justice calls for us to acknowledge apartheid conditions wherever they occur,” said Yifat Susskind, Executive Director of MADRE. “It also calls for recognizing the different forms of discrimination those conditions can be based on, including for example, gender discrimination, which underlies institutionalized oppression in Afghanistan.”

“The South African government has a leadership role to play in ensuring that the apartheid provision in the draft treaty on crimes against humanity accounts for all its victims,” said Zaid Kimmie, Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights. “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.”

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