Apartheid as a crime against humanity
- Date & time
- –
- Speaker
- Dr. Victor KattanAssistant Professor in Public International Law, University of Nottingham School of Law; Smuts Visiting Research Fellow, University of Cambridge
- Host
- International Development (Department)
- Series
- Refugee Studies Centre Events
- Location
- Queen Elizabeth House - Seminar Room 1, 4 Mansfield Road, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3TB, United Kingdom
- Organisation
- Oxford
Topics
About this talk
Apartheid is defined in international law as a crime against humanity, but it also cuts across a number of areas of international law beyond international criminal law, to include international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international refugee law. The crime against humanity of apartheid is defined in two treaties: the Apartheid Convention (1973) and the ICC Statute (1998). While these treaties largely converge in the way they define the crime of apartheid as a system, their scope and substance differ. Scholars disagree on the meaning to be attributed to its core provisions: What is a racial group? What does domination mean? What is systematic oppression? What is the status of the crime in customary international law? How have states parties to these treaties sought to give effect to their obligations to prosecute the crime in their domestic legal systems? What are the challenges of applying the crime of apartheid to situations beyond South Africa or, for example, invoking it as a ground for individuals claiming asylum owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race or nationality under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol? In this presentation, Dr Kattan will seek to answer these questions by providing a brief overview of the preliminary findings of his OUP monograph on apartheid as a crime against humanity. The seminar will be followed by drinks in the Hall.
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