International convention against apartheid in sports signed on 16 May by 43 states.

International Convention against Apartheid in Sports signed on 16 May by 43 States

Representatives of 43 States on 16 May signed the International Convention against Apartheid in Sports at a ceremonial meeting of the Special Committee against Apartheid.

The Convention, adopted by the General Assembly on 10 December 1985, will come into force after it has been ratified or acceded to by 27 States.

Under the Convention, States parties strongly condemn apartheid and undertake to pursue immediately the elimination of apartheid in all its forms from sports. They commit themselves not to permit their sports bodies, teams and individual sportsmen to have contact with a country practising apartheid.

Regarding appropriate action against those participating in sports activities in a country practising apartheid or with teams representing such a country, States parties agree to: refuse to provide financial assistance; restrict access to national sports facilities; void sports contracts; and withdraw national honours or awards. They also are to deny visas to sports persons representing a country practising apartheid and expel such countries from international and regional sports bodies.

States parties also try to ensure universal compliance with the Olympic principle of non-discrimination. They undertake to prohibit entry into their countries of sports persons who have participated in sports competitions in South Africa, or persons who invite bodies and persons participating under the flag of a country practising apartheid.

Parties also undertake to ensure the expulsion of South Africa from all federations in which it still holds membership and to impose sanctions against national federations condoning exchanges with a country practising apartheid.

The Convention states that provisions relating to South Africa shall cease to apply when the system of apartheid is absolished in that country. It provides for creation of a 15-member Commission against Apartheid in Sports to monitor actions taken to give effect to the Convention.

Those signing the Convention were: Algeria, Barbados, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Byelorussian SSR, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Cuba, Democratic Yemen, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, German Democratic Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukrainian SSR, USSR, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.

Secretary-General's message: In a message to the meeting, Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar said the Convention, many years in the making, reflected a universal consensus on what needed to be done to isolate from the field of sports those who advocated the doctrine of racial discrimination. The United Nations had declared a boycott of apartheid sports many years ago, because apartheid negated human values and the ideals of equality and brotherhood which were "the highest attributes of sportsmanship'.

Since the General Assembly adopted the International Declaration against Apartheid in Sports in 1977, South Africa had relaxed its regulations governing sports in order to permit combined black and white teams and to allow mixed black and white audiences to witness sports events. That could be considered a partial gain for United Nations efforts to isolate apartheid in sports, he said, but such mixed race events remained an exception. The black sportsman allowed to play alongside whites or to go abroad in South African teams had, when the game was over, to return to the world of apartheid.

"Token mixing of blacks and whites cannot conceal the fact that a society based on apartheid and racism is an abnormal society in which there can be no sport in the true sense of the word', he declared. The Convention's ratification would serve to reinforce a demand universally made for the elimination of apartheid in South Africa. He hoped that the Convention would be signed and ratified by all countries opposed to apartheid.

Chairman's statement: Joseph N. Garba (Nigeria), Chairman of the Special Committee, said many international sports federations had expelled South Africa, but some federations dominated by Western countries had failed to act. South African sports associations and promoters were offering, no doubt with government subsidies, huge fees to foreign sportsmen to participate in sports events in South Africa. The pretext of desegregating South African sport was meant to give South Africa respectability.

However, as long as there was apartheid, there could be no free sport in the true sense of the word. Those who took part in sports in South Africa or with South African teams were playing the game of the apartheid regime, whose purpose was not to promote sports or sportsmanship but to perpetuate injustice and racial domination in the country. It was deplorable that many continued to do so. He paid tribute to the many who, placing ideals above personal considerations, had renounced all intentions of going to South Africa as long as apartheid prevailed.

Other views: Ernest Besley Maycock (Barbados), Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee which drafted the Convention, said that for the first time, all anti-apartheid forces could work together within the Convention's framework to ensure the isolation of organized South African sport. However, much still remained to be done. States that were unable for one reason or another to accede to the Convention must be asked to implement those provisions which did not conflict with their constitutional obligations. The Convention should be seen as an integral part of the systematic struggle against the evil of apartheid.

Wilbert K. Chagula (United Republic of Tanzania), on behalf of the African Group, said that many more African States would be signing the Convention in the very near future. Ahmed Gora Ebrahim, observer of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), said the Convention constituted a great source of encouragement to his oppressed people. Solly Simelane, observer of the African National Congress of South Africa (ANC), said he saluted the efforts of all who were attempting to isolate the apartheid regime.