‘We Know What Apartheid Looks Like,’ South Africa’s Delegate Tells Third Committee amid Mounting Calls for Justice for Palestinians
Amid a climate of systemic impunity, aggressors and their accomplices must be held accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide, delegates told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today during a continued discussion on human rights.
It has been 11 months since the Hamas attack killed 1,200 people and hostages were taken, recalled the representative of South Africa. In response, Israel embarked on collective punishment on Gaza. The torment of the people in the Strip continues unabated, with over 40,000 Palestinians killed, homes, schools and hospitals destroyed, and famine and disease stalking the streets.
“This cannot but shock our collective humanity,” he asserted, underscoring that the violence against the Palestinian people is a grim continuation of over half a century of apartheid. “We South Africans know what apartheid looks like — we have lived through it, suffered and died under it,” he stated, adding: “We cannot remain silent and watch as apartheid is perpetrated against others.” This motivated South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice, whose orders make it clear that there is a plausible case of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
International humanitarian law is under threat due to the ongoing abuse committed by Israel against the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Syrian Golan and Lebanon, echoed Kuwait’s delegate, adding that “the country is yet to be held accountable”, including for attacking the UN forces in Lebanon. Its aggression against Lebanon has resulted in the internal displacement of over a million people — 22 per cent of the population, he noted, calling on all countries to help stop the criminal war against the Palestinian people, including by blocking arms transfer to Israel.
Israel’s representative stated that the protection of human rights stands at the core of her country’s democratic values, declaring that this commitment has not been shaken by the 7 October 2023 massacre and the security challenges her country faces from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Iranian regime. Yet, many countries singled out Israel and tarnished its name, she added, vowing to continue efforts until all the hostages safely return home.
“It is a demonstration of self-denial when a genocidal State targeting civilians in an atrocious war of aggression claims adherence to human rights,” observed Egypt’s delegate, noting that Israel denies the Palestinian people the right to life and self-determination. Categorically rejecting the forcible displacement of Palestinians and “attempts to erase the question of Palestine”, she spotlighted her country's efforts to end this war and ensure guarantees for civilians and humanitarian workers.
The Committee also heard:
- Demand from developing countries to support the right to development
- Rejection of double standards in the application of human rights norms
- Calls for some countries to accept the external scrutiny of internal human rights issues
Human rights violations are reported elsewhere, including in Myanmar. The latest example of those abuses was the military junta’s 19 October 2024 “heinous killing of civilians” in Butalin, that country’s speaker noted. “They were decapitated, their heads were hanged on fences, their body parts were dismembered and scattered,” he reported. Further detailing the alarming human rights situation since the 2021 military coup in his country, he said that the junta’s daily aerial attacks and indiscriminate shelling have destroyed over 100,000 homes and killed 5,800 people while 3.4 million people have been displaced — while the displaced Rohingya people face increased marginalization. The international community must redouble efforts to prevent atrocities in Myanmar, he said, calling for restrictions on the junta’s access to arms, jet fuel and foreign currency and for a rejection of their “sham” elections. “Please — do not support the military junta,” he said.
In Sudan, 18 months after the “popular revolution”, the country’s armed forces continue their protective functions in a professional manner consistent with relevant international laws and the Geneva Accords. The rebel militia of the Rapid Support Forces continue to commit violations that “go against human conscience” and are using genocide and ethnic cleansing as a weapon of war to “impose a new reality and reshape the demographic identity of the region by settling foreigners and displacing the remaining civilians”. Perpetrators, along with their funders, must account for prolonging the war and humanitarian suffering, she said, urging the Human Rights Council to support “relentless national efforts” towards achieving justice and accountability while fighting impunity.
Several developing countries highlighted the importance of the right to development. Despite its centrality to the Global South’s priorities, such right remains inadequately addressed in international forums, said Eritrea’s representative, welcoming the draft declaration on the Covenant on the Right to Development and urging all countries, especially those yet to support the initiative, to endorse it. Human rights issues in the Global South are “too often overshadowed by narrow discussions centred primarily on political freedoms”, she said, stressing that focus must also be on addressing socioeconomic disparities. Lamenting the exclusion of these countries due to their lack of basic technological infrastructure, she warned: “This digital divide represents a new frontier of inequality.”
Some countries rejected “double standards” in applying human rights norms. Among them was the representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, who said “there can never be a unique human rights standard” even if the United States and Western countries insist on the universality of them. Meanwhile, human rights violations in those countries are “systematic”, including racism, Islamophobia and police violence, while Washington, D.C., invades other countries under the pretext of “the responsibility to protect”. While his country and others are vilified as “human rights violators”, the West’s track records have never been scrutinized at the UN, he pointed out.
On that, Libya’s delegate said that “flagrant and shameful policies of double standards” from different countries and regions turn a blind eye to atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon “as if our blood were a different colour”. In a similar vein, Cuba’s speaker rejected the use of punitive methods against Global South countries, stating that human rights are universal. The United States’ 60-year blockade — a policy meant to “defeat Cubans through hunger”, violating their human rights — is directly responsible for the past five days of blackouts in his country, he said.
“We do not accept that our historic and present-day challenges prohibit us from also holding other Member States accountable for the international legal obligations they have voluntarily taken on themselves,” said Canada’s delegate. Instead of rejecting the external examination of domestic human rights issues as “selective” or “political”, “we open ourselves to scrutiny and encourage others to do the same”, he said, underscoring the responsibility of every State to uphold human rights that are “universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated.”
Presenting her report to the Committee, Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy Ana Brian Nougrères pointed out that the 1990 General Assembly resolution “Guidelines for the Regulation of Computerized Personal Data Files” lacks privacy regulations and is outdated. Three decades later, “personal data is collected on a massive scale, crossing borders instantaneously, often without the knowledge or consent of individuals”, she said, calling on Member States to adopt an updated text. The revision would address the “crucial” right to object to data processing and provide recommendations on protecting sensitive information such as biometrics and genetic and neural data, she noted, emphasizing that it is not a technical update but “a necessary response to the rapidly changing digital landscape that impacts the privacy and rights of individuals worldwide”.