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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Canada and the 'South African Disputes' at the United Nations, 1946-1961
Author:Henshaw, PeterISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:Canadian Journal of African Studies
Volume:33
Issue:1
Pages:1-52
Language:English
Geographic terms:South Africa
Canada
Subjects:apartheid
foreign policy
UN
Politics and Government
international relations
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/486386
Abstract:The very first session of the UN General Assembly saw South Africa severely criticized for both its treatment of its 'Indian' population and its attempt to annex South-West Africa. By 1952, the whole policy of apartheid was being attacked at the Assembly. One or more of these 'South African disputes' appeared on the Assembly's agenda annually, but it was not until the late 1950s that the Canadian delegation began to vote in favour of resolutions directly critical of South Africa's racial policies. This article argues that Canadian policy was the product of sharply competing and deeply contradictory aims, the most important of which can properly be understood only in a multilateral context. Explicit Canadian government criticism of South Africa was held in check by several interlocking factors: important sections of the Canadian government and public were morally indifferent to the racial situation in South Africa; there was a powerful Commonwealth convention of non-interference in the domestic affairs of member States; South Africa was a trusted military and political ally and a valuable trading partner; and its cooperation was thought to be vital to the multilateral world systems that were held to be of preeminent significance in the Cold War era. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French.
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