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3 It is estimated that some 54,000 people were detained under the state of emergency between 1985 and 1990. By contrast, approximately 25,000 persons were detained between 1963 and 1984. See South African Institute of Race Relations, Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 (Johannesburg: the Institute) (“South African Survey”).Google Scholar

4 Many scholars and practitioners of international human rights law have long held that human rights violations require state action, whether or not officially sanctioned. In contradistinction, they posit that the behavior of nonstate actors may violate international humanitarian law, which applies to combatants regardless of whether they represent a state, or may constitute a crime under international law; however, it is not a violation of human rights. This article takes a contrary view, maintaining that the universality of human rights norms demands that such rights attach to all individuals; whether the rights were violated by state or nonstate actors is irrelevant as the damage to the victim is the same. For South Africa, this position also accords with the way the issue of bringing violators to task has been treated by the African National Congress, which has conducted inquiries into human rights violations committed in its camps in exile and not into breaches of humanitarian law or international criminal law.Google Scholar

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20 The history of these groups is described in Tom Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (New York: Longman, 1983) ('Lodge, Black Politics').Google Scholar

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22 N.Y. Times, 15 June 1990. Some months later, De Klerk also repealed the state of emergency for Natal. It was reinstated briefly there just before the election.Google Scholar

23 N.Y. Times, 30 Oct. 1990.Google Scholar

24 N.Y. Times, 2 Feb. 1991.Google Scholar

25 The willingness of the ANC leadership to negotiate with the De Klerk government alienated many young Africans who joined the PAC, the ANC's main rival. Unlike the ANC, the PAC has historically been more nationalist in orientation, rejecting the ANC's willingness to find accommodation with whites.Google Scholar

26 The argument can be made that the Communist party did, in fact, have representation because many of its members are also prominent in the ANC. On the Communist party, see generally Lodge, Black Politics. Google Scholar

27 Further to the left of the PAC is the strongly nationalist AZAPO, which insisted that it would negotiate with whites only in the context of a constituent assembly.Google Scholar

28 The Democratic party, a white group slightly to the left of the NP but without broad backing.Google Scholar

29 Homelands were the names given to reserves for Africans when, under the apartheid system, the government argued in international fora that in these desiccated areas, Africans could exercise their legitimate rights to self-determination. Under the scheme, four such homelands–the Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and the Ciskei–received sham independence recognized by no state but South Africa.Google Scholar

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31 Indeed, from July I990 through June 1992, some 6,229 South Africans died in violent incidents, about the same number killed during the unrest of the 1980s. South African Survey 1990, 1991, 1992 (cited in note 3).Google Scholar

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48 Id. at 2.Google Scholar

49 Id. at 3.Google Scholar

50 Act No. 19 of 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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56 Id. at 4.Google Scholar

57 Id. at 3.Google Scholar

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59 Issued by a commission led by a British barrister whose mandate had been to investigate behavior in ANC exile camps. The right-wing International Freedom Foundation had financed Douglas's work.Google Scholar

60 Weekly Mail (Johannesburg), 27 Nov. 1992; Cape Times, 27 Nov. 1992.Google Scholar

61 Star, 30 Nov. 1992.Google Scholar

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66 N.Y. Times, 5 July 1993.Google Scholar

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70 Bill Keller, “South African Parties Endorse Constitution Granting Rights to All,”N.Y. Times, 18 Nov. 1993, at 1.Google Scholar

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86 Giuseppe Di Palma, To Craft Democracies: An Essay on Democratic Transitions 95 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).Google Scholar