Mandela's statement at the U.N. Special Committee Against Apartheid

How much better it would have been if we were meeting to celebrate a victory in hand, a dream fulfilled, the triumph of justice over a tyrannical past, the realisation of the vision enshrined in the UN charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

How much better it would have been if we were meeting to celebrate a victory in hand, a dream fulfilled, the triumph of justice over a tyrannical past, the realisation of the vision enshrined in the UN charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It will forever remain an indelible blight on human history that the apartheid crime ever occurred.

It will forever remain an indelible blight on human history that the apartheid crime ever occurred.

They will be posed because the spur to the establishment of this Organisation was the determination of all humanity never again to permit racist theory and practice to dragoon the world into the deathly clutches of war and genocide.

As they knew would happen, who refused to treat this matter as a quaint historical aberration, this tyranny has claimed its own conclave of victims.

As they knew would happen, who refused to treat this matter as a quaint historical aberration, this tyranny has claimed its own conclave of victims.

As they knew would happen, who refused to treat this matter as a quaint historical aberration, this tyranny has claimed its own conclave of victims.

We hold it as an inviolable principle that racism must be opposed by all the means that humanity has at its disposal.

This is why it was correct to characterise the apartheid system as a crime against humanity and appropriate that the international community should decide that it should be suppressed and punishment meted out against its perpetrators.

We pay tribute to this Organisation and its member States for this and other decisions and actions it took to expunge this crime.

We also take this opportunity to salute the Special Committee against Apartheid which has been and is a very important instrument in our struggle against the iniquitous and oppressive policies of the South African Government.

We salute also the States that make up its membership who have been unrelenting in their resolve to contribute everything they could to ensure that the world was mobilised to act against the apartheid system.

In this connection also, Sir, allow us to express a well-deserved tribute to your country, Nigeria, which you so ably represent, as did your predecessor in this important office, His Excellency Major-General Joseph Garba, current President of the General Assembly, and under whose leadership the United Nations, declaration on South Africa was adopted by consensus at the sixteenth special session of the General Assembly last December.

No relaxation of sanctions

We look forward to the report that the distinguished Secretary-General of the United Nations will submit dealing with the question of the implementation of the declaration in South Africa.

We therefore hope that all member States will continue to act in concert so as not to create any situation in which those who are opposed to change in our country find encouragement to resist change, because some countries would have destroyed the consensus that has been achieved.

But as this distinguished gathering knows, a lot still remains to be done before we can say that a climate conducive to negotiations has been created.

We are of the view that they will abide by decisions that are arrived at in the course of our discussions and negotiations.

The ANC is determined to do everything in its power to ensure speedy movement forward towards the peaceful abolition of the apartheid system.

Tribute is also due to the non-aligned countries and movement and the peoples of the rest of the world for their own sterling efforts in pursuit of the common cause.

We know also that you harbour the hope that we will not relent or falter in the pursuit of that common vision which should result in the transformation of South Africa into a country of democracy, justice and peace.

We know also that you harbour the hope that we will not relent or falter in the pursuit of that common vision which should result in the transformation of South Africa into a country of democracy, justice and peace.

We commend their struggles to you, convinced that we are all moved by the fact that freedom is indivisible, convinced that the denial of the rights of one diminish the freedom of the other.

Let us, by our joint actions, vindicate the purposes for which this Organisation was established and where its charter and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights will become part of the body of Law on which will be based the political and social order of a new South Africa.