UNTC

STATUS AS AT : 04-05-2024 09:15:33 EDT

CHAPTER IV

HUMAN RIGHTS

7 . International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid

New York, 30 November 1973

Entry into force

18 July 1976, in accordance with article XV(1).

Registration

18 July 1976, No. 14861

Status

Signatories : 31. Parties : 109

Text

United Nations, Treaty Series , vol. 1015, p. 243.

Note

The Convention was opened for signature at New York on 30 November 1973.

Participant ¹	Signature	Ratification, Accession(a), Succession(d)
Afghanistan		6 Jul 1983 a
Algeria	23 Jan 1974	26 May 1982
Antigua and Barbuda		7 Oct 1982 a
Argentina	6 Jun 1975	7 Nov 1985
Armenia		23 Jun 1993 a
Azerbaijan		16 Aug 1996 a
Bahamas		31 Mar 1981 a
Bahrain		27 Mar 1990 a
Bangladesh		5 Feb 1985 a
Barbados		7 Feb 1979 a
Belarus	4 Mar 1974	2 Dec 1975
Benin	7 Oct 1974	30 Dec 1974
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)		6 Oct 1983 a
Bosnia and Herzegovina ²		1 Sep 1993 d
Bulgaria	27 Jun 1974	18 Jul 1974
Burkina Faso	3 Feb 1976	24 Oct 1978
Burundi		12 Jul 1978 a
Cabo Verde		12 Jun 1979 a
Cambodia ³		28 Jul 1981 a
Cameroon		1 Nov 1976 a
Central African Republic		8 May 1981 a
Chad	23 Oct 1974	23 Oct 1974
China		18 Apr 1983 a
Colombia		23 May 1988 a
Congo		5 Oct 1983 a
Costa Rica		15 Oct 1986 a
Croatia ²		12 Oct 1992 d
Cuba		1 Feb 1977 a
Czech Republic ⁴		22 Feb 1993 d
Democratic Republic of the Congo		11 Jul 1978 a
Ecuador	12 Mar 1975	12 May 1975
Egypt		13 Jun 1977 a
El Salvador		30 Nov 1979 a
Estonia		21 Oct 1991 a
Ethiopia		19 Sep 1978 a
Gabon		29 Feb 1980 a
Gambia		29 Dec 1978 a
Georgia		21 Mar 2005 a
Ghana		1 Aug 1978 a
Guatemala		15 Jun 2005 a
Guinea	1 Mar 1974	3 Mar 1975
Guyana		30 Sep 1977 a
Haiti		19 Dec 1977 a
Honduras		29 Apr 2005 a
Hungary	26 Apr 1974	20 Jun 1974
India		22 Sep 1977 a
Iran (Islamic Republic of)		17 Apr 1985 a
Iraq	1 Jul 1975	9 Jul 1975
Jamaica	30 Mar 1976	18 Feb 1977
Jordan	5 Jun 1974	1 Jul 1992
Kenya	2 Oct 1974
Kuwait		23 Feb 1977 a
Kyrgyzstan		5 Sep 1997 a
Lao People's Democratic Republic		5 Oct 1981 a
Latvia		14 Apr 1992 a
Lesotho		4 Nov 1983 a
Liberia		5 Nov 1976 a
Libya		8 Jul 1976 a
Madagascar		26 May 1977 a
Maldives		24 Apr 1984 a
Mali		19 Aug 1977 a
Mauritania		13 Dec 1988 a
Mexico		4 Mar 1980 a
Mongolia	17 May 1974	8 Aug 1975
Montenegro ⁵		23 Oct 2006 d
Mozambique		18 Apr 1983 a
Namibia ⁶		11 Nov 1982 a
Nepal		12 Jul 1977 a
Nicaragua		28 Mar 1980 a
Niger		28 Jun 1978 a
Nigeria	26 Jun 1974	31 Mar 1977
North Macedonia ²		18 Jan 1994 d
Oman	3 Apr 1974	22 Aug 1991
Pakistan		27 Feb 1986 a
Panama	7 May 1976	16 Mar 1977
Paraguay		2 Dec 2005 a
Peru		1 Nov 1978 a
Philippines	2 May 1974	26 Jan 1978
Poland	7 Jun 1974	15 Mar 1976
Qatar	18 Mar 1975	19 Mar 1975
Republic of Moldova		28 Oct 2005 a
Romania	6 Sep 1974	15 Aug 1978
Russian Federation	12 Feb 1974	26 Nov 1975
Rwanda	15 Oct 1974	23 Jan 1981
Sao Tome and Principe		5 Oct 1979 a
Senegal		18 Feb 1977 a
Serbia ²		12 Mar 2001 d
Seychelles		13 Feb 1978 a
Slovakia ⁴		28 May 1993 d
Slovenia ²		6 Jul 1992 d
Somalia	2 Aug 1974	28 Jan 1975
Sri Lanka		18 Feb 1982 a
St. Vincent and the Grenadines		9 Nov 1981 a
State of Palestine		2 Apr 2014 a
Sudan	10 Oct 1974	21 Mar 1977
Suriname		3 Jun 1980 a
Syrian Arab Republic	17 Jan 1974	18 Jun 1976
Togo		24 May 1984 a
Trinidad and Tobago	7 Apr 1975	26 Oct 1979
Tunisia		21 Jan 1977 a
Uganda	11 Mar 1975	10 Jun 1986
Ukraine	20 Feb 1974	10 Nov 1975
United Arab Emirates	9 Sep 1975	15 Oct 1975
United Republic of Tanzania		11 Jun 1976 a
Uruguay		19 Apr 2012 a
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)		28 Jan 1983 a
Viet Nam		9 Jun 1981 a
Yemen ⁷		17 Aug 1987 a
Zambia		14 Feb 1983 a
Zimbabwe		13 May 1991 a

Declarations and Reservations

(Unless otherwise indicated, the declarations and reservations were made
upon ratification, accession or succession.)

Argentina

Declaration:

It is the understanding of the Argentine Republic that article XII of the Convention should be interpreted to mean that its express consent shall be required in order for any dispute to which it is a party and which has not been settled by negotiation to be brought before the International Court of Justice.

Bahrain ⁸

Egypt ⁹

India

"The Government of the Republic of India accede to the said Convention with effect from 17 August 1977."

Iraq

Ratification by the Republic of Iraq of the above Convention shall in no way imply recognition of Israel, or be conducive to the establishment of such relations therewith as may be provided for in the Convention.

Kuwait ¹⁰

"It is understood that the Accession of the State of Kuwait [. . .] does not mean in any way recognition of Israel by the State of Kuwait."

Mozambique

The People's Republic of Mozambique interprets article 12 of the Convention as to mean that the submission of any dispute concerning the interpretation and application of the Convention to the International Court of Justice shall be at the previous consent and request of all the parties to the dispute.

Nepal

       "The Constitution of Nepal contains provisions for the protection of individual rights, including the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to form unions and associations not motivated by party politics and the right to freedom of professing his/her own religion; and nothing in the Convention shall be deemed to require or to authorize legislation or other action by Nepal incompatible with the provisions of the Constitution of Nepal.
       "His Majesty's Government interprets article 4 of the said Convention as requiring a Party to the Convention to adopt further legislative measures in the fields covered by sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of that article only insofar as His Majesty's Government may consider, with due regard to the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that some legislative addition to, or variation of, existing law and practice in those fields is necessary for the attainment of the end specified in the earlier part of article 4.
       "His Majesty's Government does not consider itself bound by the provision of article 12 of the Convention under which any dispute between two or more States Parties with respect to the interpretation or application of the Convention is, at the request of any of the parties to the dispute, to be referred to the International Court of Justice for decision."

Republic of Moldova

Reservation:

Until the full establishment of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, the provisions of the Convention will be applied only on the territory effectively controlled by the authorities of the Republic of Moldova.

United Arab Emirates

"The ratification of the United Arab Emirates to this Convention shall in no way amount to recognition of nor the establishment of any treaty relations with Israel."

Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

With a reservation excluding the provisions of article XII of the Convention.

Yemen ^{7, 10}

The accession of the Government of the Yemen Arab Republic to this Convention shall in no way imply recognition of Israel or the establishment of such relations therewith as may be provided for in the Convention.

End Note

1.The German Democratic Republic had signed and ratified the Convention on 2 May 1974 and 12 August 1974 (See C.N.216.1974.TREATIES-9), respectively. See also note 2 under “Germany” in the “Historical Information” section in the front matter of this volume.

2.The former Yugoslavia had signed and ratified the Convention on 17 December 1974 and 1 July 1975, respectively. See also note 1 under "Bosnia and Herzegovina", "Croatia", "former Yugoslavia", "Slovenia", "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and "Yugoslavia" in the "Historical Information" section in the front matter of this volume.

3.The Secretary-General received, on 10 September 1981 from the Government of Viet Nam, the following objection with regard to the accession of Democratic Kampuchea:

"The accession to the above-mentioned international Convention on behalf of the so-called `Government of Kampuchea' by the genocidal clique of Pol Pot-Ieng Sary-Khieu Samphan, which was overthrown on 7 January 1979 by the Kampuchean people, is completely illegal and has no legal value. Only the Government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea, which is actually in power in Kampuchea, is empowered to represent the Kampuchea people and to sign and accede to international agreements and conventions.

As a party to that Convention, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam is of the opinion that the accession of the so-called `Government of Democratic Kampuchea' constitutes not only a gross violation of the standards of law and international morality, but also one of the most cynical affronts to the three million Kampucheans who are the victims of the most despicable crime of contemporary history, committed by the Pol Pot régime which is spurned by the whole of mankind."

Thereafter, similar communications objecting to the signature by Democratic Kampuchea were received by the Secretary-General on 14 September 1981 from the Government of the German Democratic Republic, on 12 November 1981 from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, on 19 November 1981 from the Government of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, on 3 December 1981 from the Government of Hungary, on 5 January 1982 from the Government of Bulgaria, on 13 January 1982 from the Government of Mongolia, and on 17 May 1982 from the Government of Czechoslovakia.

4.Czechoslovakia had signed and ratified the Convention on 29 August 1975 and 25 March 1976, respectively. See also note 1 under “Czech Republic” and note 1 under “Slovakia” in the “Historical Information” section in the front matter of this volume.

5.See note 1 under "Montenegro" in the "Historical Information" section in the front matter of this volume.

6.See note 1 under “Namibia” in the “Historical Information” section in the front matter of this volume.

7.Democratic Yemen had signed the Convention on 31 July 1974 (See, C.N.203.1974.TREATIES-8 of 19 August 1974). See also note 1 under “Yemen” in the “Historical Information” section in the front matter of this volume.

8.On 8 July 2021, the Government of Bahrain notified the Secretary-General of its withdrawal of the following reservation made upon accession:

“The accession by the State of Bahrain to the said Convention shall in no way constitute recognition of Israel or be a cause for the establishment of any relations of any kind therewith.”

9.Upon accession, the Government of Egypt had formulated a declaration concerning Israel. For the text of the declaration, see United Nations, Treaty Series , vol. 1045, p. 397. In this regard, the Secretary-General received, on 30 August 1977, a declaration from the Government of Israel identical in essence, mutatis mutandis , as the one made with regard to the accession by Kuwait (see note 9 ).

Subsequently, in a notification received on 18 January 1980, the Government of Egypt informed the Secretary-General that it had decided to withdraw the declaration. The notification indicates 25 January 1980 as the effective date of the withdrawal.

10.The Secretary-General received, on 12 May 1977 from the Government of Israel, the following communication:

"The instrument deposited by the Government of Kuwait contains a statement of a political character in respect to Israel. In the view of the Government of Israel, this is not the proper place for making such political pronouncements, which are, moreover, in flagrant contradiction to the principles, objects and purposes of the Organization. That pronouncement by the Government of Kuwait cannot in any way affect whatever obligations are binding upon Kuwait under general international law or under particular treaties. The Government of Israel will, insofar as concerns the substance of the matter, adopt towards the Government of Kuwait an attitude of complete reciprocity."

A communication identical in essence, mutatis mutandis , was received by the Secretary-General from the Government of Israel, on 15 December 1987, in respect of the declaration made upon accession by Yemen.