Human rights in Southern Africa.

Human Rights in Southern Africa 

The Committee reviewed three reports of the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on Southern Africa. The Group, established in 1967 by the Commission on Human Rights, is comprised, at present, of six experts from Austria, Chile, Ghana, India, Yugoslavia and Zaire, acting in their personal capacities. They examine policies and practices that violate human rights in South Africa and Namibia.

The first report reviews a broad range of human rights violations in both South Africa and Namibia (document E/CN.4/1983/10) and is based on information received from concerned individuals and bodies, s well as from official documents and news reports. It identifies individuals-- members of South African military, police and security forces--"suspected to be guilty of the crime of apartheid or of a serious violation of human rights', most of whom are cited for murder, rape or atrocities against civilians.

The Ad Hoc Group concludes that "apartheid remains cruel, inhuman and degrading' and that no significant development in that regard has taken place since last year. It says constitutional developments in South Africa have continued to evolve in a discriminatory manner, citing recent proposals aimed at establishing three assemblies, in which white, Coloured and Asian populations would have representation, but blacks would be denied any role. It notes that South Africa has one of the highest rates of judicial executions and states that violations of the right to life have been committed by security forces inside and outside South Africa.

A new Security Law has brought together all previous legal provisions for detention without trial, and the prison population has increased, the report adds. Various methods of torture are employed during interrogation of suspects, and deaths resulting from torture have been reported. The number of persons who have disappeared has increased.

The conditions of black workers have not changed fundamentally. The Code of Conduct of the European Economic Community has not made any significant impact, the report continues. Strikes by black workers are treated as criminal acts. Black unemployment is high, and black workers are forcibly removed from urban centres to the so-called "homelands' or bantustans. The Group reports that transnational corporations in certain cases have shifted environmental responsibility from European countries to South Africa, which has weaker environmental regulations, resulting in adverse consequences for the health of workers.

The Group came to similar conclusions with regard to the human rights situation in Namibia, where security laws and measures were strengthened during the past year. It found evidence of South Africa's violations of Angola's territorial integrity, noting that attacks had been directed against the latter's schools and economic installations. It also heard testimony that South African forces making incursions into Angola were poisoning water supplies there.

The Group recommends that the Commission on Human Rights denounce South Africa's constitutional proposals and proposes a strengthening of international appeals for the release of persons arrested for trade union activities. Appeals should be made to spare the lives of political activists. The Group says the International Labour Organisation (ILO) should establish a list of jobs for which black workers in South Africa are not trained. Member States should assist black South Africans in acquiring professional training.

The Group recommends that the Commission call on the competent United Nations organs to redouble their efforts to achieve an overall political solution for Namibia as rapidly as possible; that it adopt measures on behalf of Namibian refugees; that it condemn violations of the territorial integrity of States adjoining Namibia; that it widely publicize South Africa's human rights violations in Namibia, particularly through the United Nations Department of Public Information; and that it appeal to the competent specialized agencies to mount a preventive medicine programme in the "homelands' there.

The second report of the Ad Hoc Group (document E/CN.4/1983/37) deals with slavery and child labour in South Africa. It cites the precarious conditions of black workers, particularly agricultural workers. It concludes that black farm workers are entirely at the mercy of the white farmers. The school system for children of farm workers is described as deplorable; child labour is widespread; children from farms are separated from their families to work in urban areas. Private gaols, in which farm labourers are placed for disciplinary reasons, and transit or resettlement camps, in which old or unproductive Africans and former political prisoners and families of prisoners are placed, are described as inhuman places.

The Group recommends abolition of transit camps, of policies of enforced removal of populations and of transferring African workers and separating them from their families. It also supports the recommendation by the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities that all Governments, particularly that of South Africa, ratify the ILO Convention on Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and ensure that adequate legislation is enacted to protect the rights of working children.

The Group's third report examines the effects of apartheid on black women and children in South Africa (document E/CN.4/1983/38), concluding that they are the main victims of forced transfer to the "homelands' and resettlement camps, where they live in extreme poverty and neglect, suffering from malnutrition and epidemic disease. In addition, black women have limited access to housing or education. The largest number are employed in domestic service, under conditions of extreme exploitation, separated from their families. Between 30 and 50 per cent of African children in rural areas die before the age of five. Black children are said to be subject to detention, interrogation, torture and disappearance, primarily because of boycotts of discriminatory education. Many have been accused of political offences.

The Group requests that United Nations, non-governmental organizations and other groups give the widest possible publicity to the shameful living conditions under apartheid and proposes increased aid to women and children who are refugees from South Africa. It proposes further research on slavery-like child labour in South Africa and recommends denumciation of the manner in which the South African police and courts violate the status of juveniles and detain, imprison, torture or kill African children.

Photo: Life for blacks in southern Africa is often bleak, confined, full of despair.