ABSTRACT
As the world moved into still further contests of power and prejudice, it became abundantly clear that even after a decade of action one of the most difficult and frustrating of the "hard facts" of the politics and diplomacy of racial discrimination remained that of resistance to change. Charges of racial discrimination against the former colonial powers rarely are accompanied by acknowledgments that Western European governments have ratified almost all of the major human rights instruments, through their Commission of Human Rights and Court. The difficulties presented by the kinds of problems are compounded by yet another of the several "hard facts" of the politics and diplomacy of discrimination: that is, the question of determining the best means of confronting and then overcoming abuses. International action against the white minority regime in South Africa seriously escalated in 1986.
