ABSTRACT

The greatest disappointment for the African diplomats, however, and the greatest implicit support for the South African position, came from the unwillingness of key international groupings to pass mandatory sanctions: the Security Council in the political-military field, and the World Bank in economic affairs. The General Assembly was able to achieve symbolic victory over South Africa on the question of credentials, an issue under discussion since 1963. The international environment appeared to be turning against the Africans, too, in terms of specifically African problems with significant effects on the progress of the apartheid dispute: Rhodesia after 1965, and Nigeria after 1966. A more complete explanation would have to include the change in South Africa’s posture. Following the confusion of 1964–1965, when the UN was virtually paralyzed by the financial crisis, the Africans faced up to the need to improvise a new attack on apartheid. The development of the convention illustrates the non-African sources of strength for the anti-apartheid drive.