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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Canada and the 'South African Disputes' at the United Nations, 1946-1961 |
Author: | Henshaw, Peter |
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. |