Call for Sanctions against the Apartheid Regime

[Master of Oblivion]

Members of the United Nations, it is time that we take serious action against the Apartheid Regime of South Africa. The United Nations has stated its belief that Apartheid is a system based upon racial discrimination. This system violates the Rights and abilities that are at the core of this institution. We cannot claim to uphold Human Rights when the South African regime violates the very basis in human dignity in its foul system.

The Soviet Union brings a call for sanctions in front of the United Nations. First we call for Moderate Economic Sanctions to be placed upon the South African Regime. We believe that Light Sanctions will not be effective to bring about a fundamental change, but we also believe that escalation to heavy sanctions is not yet warranted.

Second, we call for Security Council Resolution 181, which brought about a voluntary arms sanction on South Africa to be made mandatory. We must take the tools of aggression out of the hands of the tyrants.

[Serenissima]

The United Arab Republic stands against this horrific discrimination as well. We have acted in accordance with all sanctions and ourselves, in protest, have cut off all diplomatic relations with South Africa since 1961.

I am sure we can all agree that it is hardly right for foreign settlers to come to a country, take it over by force of arms, and then proceed to inflict horrific oppression on the native inhabitants, driving them from their homes and making them, at best, second-class citizens.

The true tragedy is that at certain times in the history of the world, due to the political climate of the time, such actions have been considered acceptable, or even desirable, by the international community...

Consequently, we call for an amendment to this resolution, condemning, delegitimising and establishing sanctions against all such discriminatory and oppressive regimes that meet such criteria. Or does racial discrimination apply purely to black Africans, and not Arabs?

[Huojin]

Arthur Joseph Goldberg
Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations

The United States has, under this President, been a firm opponent of the apartheid laws that are in place in South Africa, and firmly opposes the discriminatory measures in place against Black South Africans. We have played our own part in seeking reform in the RSA, having imposed a firm arms embargo since 1964, and suspending United States Navy stays in South African harbours.

However we cannot endorse this call for economic sanctions. Trade is an essential tool for the propagation of human rights, and we will achieve no progress by isolating South Africa from the rest of the world. Instead we ought to be maintaining our trade ties and ensuring that companies based in the RSA abide by the same global trading rules and standards as the rest of the world - encouraging them to comply standards of decency and commonality between all mankind. In so doing we strengthen the forces of reform, and prevent an increasingly isolated regime from turning inwards and further harming all attempts at progress.

To a similar end, although the United States has imposed strong rules on arms embargoes voluntarily, we believe that to forcibly sever South Africa from the global arms market will encourage the development of a domestic arms industry that could see the mass militarisation of South African society, threatening greater instability throughout the region.

The United States will, however, lend our support to any General Assembly resolution reiterating and strengthening the global community's condemnation of the apartheid laws.

[Gesar]

Hugh Mackintosh Foot, Baron Caradon
Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

It is a credit to the ideological purity of the Soviet Union that they can call for the unilateral destruction of a nation's stability by broadening the powers of the Security Council as laid out in the United Nations Charter to include wanton disregard for our own actions.

While the United Kingdom condemns any sort of institutional racism, from sentiment against the black population of Africa to anti-Semitism in the Middle East, we must therefore insist that the current line on the Republic of South Africa is quite sufficient, a view that has been endorsed by the Organisation of African Unity, the Commonwealth of Nations, and our own Prime Minister. Further sanctions are irresponsible and will jeopardize the livelihoods of those South Africans my friends from Moscow and Cairo wish to defend, while severing diplomatic ties will defeat the entire purpose of this institution: we are a diplomatic channel first and foremost, not some stick for the bully-boys of the East and West to beat down nations they disagree with, no matter how vehemently.

Therefore, I maintain that it is not the place of Mr. Brezhnev's friends within the United Nations to misinterpret the charter which we have spent nearly a quarter-century developing. Or need I remember my fellow representative of the text of Article 33, which states quite clearly: "The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice."