[3], South African governments since the eighteenth century had enacted measures to restrict the flow of African South Africans into cities. After some demonstrators, according to police, began stoning police officers and their armoured cars, the officers opened fire on them with submachine guns. This shows a major similarity as they wanted to achieve the same things. The ANC Vice-President, Oliver Tambo, was secretly driven across the border by Ronel Segal into the then British controlled territory of Bechunaland. (1997) Focus: 'Prisoner 1', Sunday Life, 23 March. As the number of UN members from Africa increased, the commission reversed its no power to act position and turned its attention to the human rights situation in South Africa. In the late 1980s, one of the most popular anti-apartheid movements that contributed to the end of the apartheid was the Free Mandela campaign. Following the dismantling of apartheid, South African President Nelson Mandela chose Sharpeville as the site at which, on December 10, 1996, he signed into law the countrys new constitution. Reddy. On the 21st of March 1960, black residents of Sharpeville took to the police station to protest against the use of the dompas in South Africa. On the day passes were suspended (25 March 1960) Kgosana led another march of between 2000 and 5000 people from Langa to Caledon Square. "The aeroplanes were flying high and low. 20072023 Blackpast.org. The mood of the protest had started out as peaceful and festive when there were . The Department of Home Affairs (a government bureau) was responsible for the classification of the citizenry. The march leaders were detained, but released on the same day with threats from the commanding officer of Caledon Square, Terry Tereblanche, that once the tense political situation improved people would be forced to carry passes again in Cape Town. A week later, a breakaway group from the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) held its first conference in Johannesburg. The targeted protest became infamous in the Civil Rights Movement, marked Bloody Sunday and was crucial to gaining favor of the public (civilrights.org). Attending a protest in peaceful defiance of the apartheid regime, Selinah and many other young people were demonstrating against pass laws designed to restrict and control the movement and employment of millions of Black South Africans. March 16 saw a demonstration in Montgomery, Alabama in which 580 demonstrators planned to march from the Jackson Street Baptist Church to the Montgomery County Courthouse (Reed 26). Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}264118S 275219E / 26.68833S 27.87194E / -26.68833; 27.87194. By lunchtime, the crowd outside the police station had grown to an estimated 20,000 people. Many people set out for work on bicycles or on foot, but some were intimidated by PAC members who threatened to burn their passes or "lay hands on them"if they went to work (Reverend Ambrose Reeves, 1966). When the marchers reached Sharpeville's police station a heavy contingent of policemen were lined up outside, many on top of British-made Saracen armored cars. The enforcement of Pass Laws and the reissue of laws that restricted the. The South African government then created the Unlawful Organizations Act of 1960 which banned anti-apartheid groups such as the Pan Africanist Congress and the African National Congress. The only Minister who showed any misgivings regarding government policy was Paul Sauer. To read more witness accounts of the Sharpeville Massacre, click on the 'Witness accounts' tab above. The protesters offered themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passes. All that changed following the worlds moral outrage at the killings. Nearly 300 police officers arrived to put an end to the peaceful protest. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws thatd force segregation, classification, educational requirements, and economic purposes. Across the street came 40 or so students who planned on joining the group en route to the Courthouse. Dr. Verwoerd praised the police for their actions. Both were tasked with mobilizing international financial and diplomatic support for sanctions against South Africa. Pass laws intended to control and direct their movement and employment were updated in the 1950s. Along the way small groups of people joined him. Police officers attempted to use tear gas to repel these advances, but it proved ineffectual, and the police fell back on the use of their batons. This movement sought to overcome the subjugation the racist South African government and apartheid laws imposed on Blacks. Sobukwe was only released in 1969. The adoption of the convention was quickly followed by two international covenants on economic, social and cultural rights and on civil and political rights in 1966, introduced to give effect to the rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations Security Council and governments worldwide condemned the police action and the apartheid policies that prompted this violent assault. But attempts to transform this non-binding moral declaration into a binding legal code were immediately bogged down in cold war disputes. There were also youth problems because many children joined gangs and were affiliated with crimes instead of schools. Sharpeville marked a turning point in South Africa's history; the country found itself increasingly isolated in the international community. Another officer interpreted this as an order and opened fire, triggering a lethal fusillade as 168 police constables followed his example. A dompass in those days was an Identification Document that determined who you were, your birth date, what race you are and permission from your employers to be in a specific place at a specific time. Due to the illness, removals from Topville began in 1958. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Riding into the small group of protestors, they forced most to withdraw, but a few stood fast around a utility pole where horsemen began to beat them. The massacre occurred at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville, A child demonstrates in front of Johannesburgs city hall after the Sharpeville massacre (AFP/Getty), The aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, The BritishAnti-Apartheid Movement marks the tenth anniversary of the massacre with a re-enactmentin Trafalgar Square, A family member stands next to a memorial toone of the victims of the Sharpeville massacre ahead of Human Rights Day in 2016 (AFP/Getty), Its been 60 years since dozens of protesters were killed at a peaceful anti-apartheid rally in South Africa. The key developments were the adoption of Resolution 1235 in 1967, which allowed for the examination of complaints of gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as exemplified by the policy of apartheid, and Resolution 1503 in 1970, which allowed the UN to examine complaints of a consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights. By the end of the day, 69 people lay dead or dying, with hundreds more injured. The subject of racial discrimination in South Africa was raised at the UN General Assembly in its first session, in 1946, in the form of a complaint by India concerning the treatment of Indians in the country. Selinah was shot in her leg but survived the massacre. These two industries experienced rapid growth in the immediate aftermath of World War II and continued growing into the 1950s and 1960s. The Sharpsville Massacre was a seminal moment in the history of South Africa. Only the four Native Representatives and members of the new Progressive Party voted against the Bill. A lot of Afrikaners felt a sense of guilt for the behavior they allowed to happen from their race towards another. Similarly, African American leaders from the fifties to the sixties also fought for the end of segregation, in cases such as Brown v. Board of Education. Later, in the fifties and the sixties, these same goals, enlign poll taxes and literacy tests, were once again fought for by African American leaders, through advocacy and agitation. At the annual conference of the African National Congress (ANC) held in Durban on 16 December 1959, the President General of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli, announced that 1960 was going to be the "Year of the Pass." and [proved to be] the only antidote against foreign rule and modern imperialism (Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom 2008, 156) . Expert Answers. As they attempted to disperse the crowd, a police officer was knocked down and many in the crowd began to move forward to see what had happened. Furthermore, a new police station was created, from which the police were energetic to check passes, deporting illegal residents, and raiding illegal shebeens. The event has been seen by some as a turning point in South African history. Under the country's National Party government, African residents in urban districts were subject to influx control measures. The adoption of the Race Convention was quickly followed by the international covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and on Civil and Political Rights in 1966, introduced to give effect to the rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Copyright 2023 United Nations in South Africa, Caption: Selinah Mnguni, a Sharpeville massacre survivor, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Sharpeville Massacre occurred on March 21, 1960, in the township of Sharpeville, South Africa. [7][8], On 21 March, 1960, a group of between 5,000 and 10,000 people converged on the local police station, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passbooks. In the aftermath of the events of 21 March, mass funerals were held for the victims. The Sharpeville massacre also touched off three decades of protest in South Africa, ultimately leading to freedom for Nelson Mandela, who had spent 27 years in prison. The Sharpeville massacre sparked hundreds of mass protests by black South Africans, many of which were ruthlessly and violently crushed by the South African police and military. Individuals over sixteen were required to carry passbooks, which contained an identity card, employment and influx authorisation from a labour bureau, name of employer and address, and details of personal history. Time Magazine, (1960), The Sharpeville Massacre, A short history of pass laws in South Africa [online], from, Giliomee et al. As part of its response, the General Assembly tasked the UN Commission on Human Rights to prepare the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the first global human rights treaty. For the next two and a half decades, the commission held to this position on the basis that the UN Charter only required states to promote, rather than protect, human rights. That day about 20,000 people gathered near the Sharpeville police station. Langa Township was gripped by tension and in the turmoil that ensued, In the violence that followed an employee of the Cape Times newspaper Richard Lombard was killed by the rioting crowd. Please note: Text within images is not translated, some features may not work properly after translation, and the translation may not accurately convey the intended meaning. Sharpeville massacre, (March 21, 1960), incident in the Black township of Sharpeville, near Vereeniging, South Africa, in which police fired on a crowd of Black people, killing or wounding some 250 of them. At its inaugural session in 1947, the UN Commission on Human Rights had decided that it had no power to take any action in regard to any complaints concerning human rights. What event happened on March 21 1960? This caused many other countries to criticize South Africas apartheid policy. Black citizens began to resist this prejudice though and also used violence against the enforcers of Apartheid. However, many people joined the procession quite willingly. The event was an inspiration for painter Oliver Lee Jackson in his Sharpeville Series from the 1970s.[23]. The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960 at the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng). Do you find this information helpful? Pretoria, South Africa, The blood we sacrificed was worth it - Sharpeville Massacre, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Welcome to the United Nations country team website of South Africa. On that day, demonstrations against the pass laws, which restricted the rights of the majority black population in apartheid South Africa, began in the early morning in Sharpeville, a township in Transvaal. In my own research, I have looked to complexity theory a theory developed in the natural sciences to make sense of the ways that patterns of behaviour emerge and change to understand the way that international human rights law developed and evolved. The impact of the events in Cape Town were felt in other neighbouring towns such as Paarl, Stellenbosch, Somerset West and Hermanus as anti-pass demonstrations spread. A new, third level of content, designed specially to meet the advanced needs of the sophisticated scholar. On March 21st, 1960, the Pan Africanists Congress, an anti-Apartheid splinter organization formed in 1959, organized a protest to the National Partys pass laws which required all citizens, as well as native Africans, to carry identification papers on them at all times. The commission completed this task, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, when it finalised the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. They met a police line a few blocks from the Courthouse and were forbidden from proceeding because they did not have a parade permit (Reed 26). Reports of the incident helped focus international criticism on South Africas apartheid policy. The two causes went hand in hand in this, rocketing in support and becoming the main goal of the country - the end of segregation was the most dire problem that the Civil Rights Movement needed to solve. The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), a splinter group of the African National Congress (ANC) created in 1959, organized a countrywide demonstration for March 21, 1960, for the abolition of South Africas pass laws. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. On 21 March 1960, sixty-nine unarmed anti-pass protesters were shot dead by police and over 180 were injured. The incident resulted in the largest number of South African deaths (up to that point) in a protest against apartheid. [10] Some insight into the mindset of those on the police force was provided by Lieutenant Colonel Pienaar, the commanding officer of the police reinforcements at Sharpeville, who said in his statement that "the native mentality does not allow them to gather for a peaceful demonstration. According to his "Testimony about the Launch of the Campaign," Sobukwe declared: At the press conference Sobukwe emphasized that the campaign should be conducted in a spirit of absolute non-violence and that the PAC saw it as the first step in Black people's bid for total independence and freedom by 1963 (Cape Times, 1960). Along with other PAC leaders he was charged with incitement, but while on bail he left the country and went into exile. As part of its response, the General Assembly tasked the UN Commission on Human Rights to prepare the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the first global human rights treaty. All that changed following the worlds moral outrage at the killings. Journalists who rushed there from other areas, after receiving word that the campaign was a runaway success confirmed "that for all their singing and shouting the crowd's mood was more festive than belligerent" (David M. Sibeko, 1976). African Americans demonstrated their frustration with lack of progress on the issue through non-violent means and campaigns led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (Bourne, In a march against segregation and barriers for African-American voting rights, peaceful marchers were exposed to harsh treatment by the police, 50 being hospitalized by the terrorism inflicted on them (civilrights.org). The policemen were apparently jittery after a recent event in Durban where nine policemen were shot. A state of emergency was declared in South Africa, more than 11,000 people were detained, and the PAC and ANC were outlawed. Tear gas was again fired into the crowd but because of wind the gas had little effect on dispersing the students, some of the protesters picked up the tear gas canisters and threw them back at the Guard. When protesters reconvened in defiance, the police charged at them with batons, tear gas and guns. There were 249 victims in total, including 29 children, with 69 people killed and 180 injured. In Cape Town, an estimated 95% of the African population and a substantial number of the Coloured community joined the stay away. His colleagues followed suit and opened fire. We hope you and your family enjoy the NEW Britannica Kids. The logjam was only broken after the Sharpeville massacre, as the UN decided to deal with the problem of apartheid South Africa. Freedom Now Suite includes the composition Tears for Johannesburg in response to the massacre. Stephen Wheatley is a professor of international law at Lancaster University. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. March 21 is a public holiday in South Africa in commemoration of the Sharpeville massacre. That date now marks the International Day for the. Although blood was not shed on Krogs hands directly, she took on the shame of her race. The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities, Oppression is at the root of many of the most serious, enduring conflicts in the world today. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The reactions of white South Africans to the revelations of the Truth Commission can be divided into two main groups There are those who refuse point-blank to take any responsibility and are always advancing reasons why the commission should be rejected and regarded as a costly waste of money. Let's Take Action Towards the Sustainable Development Goals. As a result of racial segregation, resistance from coloured people in both the United States and South Africa escalated. The significance of the date is reflected in the fact that. Sobukwe subsequently announced that: On the morning of 21 March, PAC members walked around Sharpeville waking people up and urging them to take part in the demonstration. [4] Leading up to the Sharpeville massacre, the National Party administration under the leadership of Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd used these laws to enforce greater racial segregation[5] and, in 19591960, extended them to include women. Baileys African History. It include with civil right that violence verses non-violence that the government could or. One of the insights was that international law does not change, unless there is some trigger for countries to change their behaviour. By continuing to use this site, you consent to the terms of our cookie policy, which can be found in our. The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960 at the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng ). That date now marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and without the Sharpeville massacre, we may not have the international system of human rights that we have today. Furthermore, during the nineties to the twenties, leaders of African Americans sought to end segregation in the South, as caused by Plessy v. Ferguson. During this event 5,000 to 7,000 protesters went to the police station after a day of demonstrations, offering themselves for arrest for not carrying passbooks. The commission completed this task, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, when it finalised the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Race, ethnicity and political groups, is an example of this. In March 1960 the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), an antiapartheid party, organized nationwide protests against South Africas pass laws. [9] The Sharpeville police were not completely unprepared for the demonstration, as they had already driven smaller groups of more militant activists away the previous night. However, the 1289 Words 6 Pages Sixty-nine Africans were killed and 186 were wounded, with most shot in the back. Business Studies. The South African governments repressive measures in response to the Sharpeville Massacre, however, intensified and expended the opposition to apartheid, ushering in three decades of resistance and protest in the country and increasing condemnation by world leaders. We need the voices of young people to break through the silence that locks in discrimination and oppression. On the morning of 21 March Robert Sobukwe left his house in Mofolo, a suburb of Soweto, and began walking to the Orlando police station. In March 1960, South African police shot dead 69 black protestors, sparking worldwide outrage . Sharpeville is a township near Vereeniging, in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The OHCHR Regional Office for Southern Africa also produced a series of digital stories on the Sharpeville massacre and young peoples concerns about their human rights. In March 1960, Robert Sobukwe, a leader in the anti-apartheid Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) organized the towns first anti-apartheid protest. The Sharpeville Massacre took place in a south african police station of Sharpeville. On 24 March 1960, in protest of the massacre, Regional Secretary General of the PAC, Philip Kgosana, led a march of 101 people from Langa to the police headquarters in Caledon Square, Cape Town. Significant reshaping of international law is often the result of momentous occurrences, most notably the first and second world wars. The significance of the date is reflected in the fact that it now marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. "[1] He also denied giving any order to fire and stated that he would not have done so. He was tricked into dispersing the crowd and was arrested by the police later that day. Stephen Wheatley explores how this tragedypaved the way for themodern United Nations, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Jennifer Davis: Exiled hero of South Africas anti-apartheid movement, Ralph Ziman: I hated apartheid. Pheko, M. (2000) Focus: 'Lest We Forget Sharpeville', The Sowetan, 20 March. Corrections? He was followed by Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, Chairperson of the South African Indian Congress and Chairperson of the underground South African Communist Party. In 1960, states had no binding international human rights obligations with oversight mechanisms. This shows a significant similarity in that both time periods leaders attempted to achieve the goal of ending. A policeman was accidently pushed over and the crowd began to move forward to see what was happening. Omissions? [6]:p.163, The African National Congress (ANC) prepared to initiate a campaign of protests against pass laws. a photographer whose pictures of the killings caused an . As an act of rebellion the passes were set alight, as seen in a picture by Ranjith Kally. In Pretoria a small group of six people presented themselves at the Hercules police station. On March 21, 1960. After translating an article, all tools except font up/font down will be disabled. In 1946, the UN established the Commission on Human Rights, whose first job was to draft a declaration on human rights. Participants were instructed to surrender their reference books (passes) and invite arrest. The Sharpeville massacre was reported worldwide, and received with horror from every quarter. As the protesters tried to flee the violent scene, police continued to shoot into the crowd. In particular, the African work force in the Cape went on strike for a period of two weeks and mass marches were staged in Durban. With the election of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa in 1994, the apartheid system ended. At 13h15 a small scuffle began near the entrance of the police station. The police were armed with firearms, including Sten submachine guns and LeeEnfield rifles. Knowing the democracy we have today was achieved in part because of the blood we sacrificed was worth it, she says. The massacre was photographed by photographer Ian Berry, who initially thought the police were firing blanks. The moral outrage surrounding these events led the United Nations General Assembly to pronounce 21 March as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial . What happened on 21 March in Sharpeville? News reports about the massacre spread across the world. The South African government began arresting more nonconformists and banning resistance organizations, such as the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress.
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