The Role of the Rome Statute in the Criminalization of Apartheid

Abstract

The article challenges the assertion that the apartheid system in South Africa was a crime against humanity under customary international law giving rise to individual responsibility prior to the drafting of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The article also examines the role of the Rome Statute in the criminalization of apartheid and assesses the current status of the crime of apartheid in customary international law with particular reference to the principle of legality (nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege). Nothing in the article should be read as condoning the gross violations of human rights that resulted from the policies of apartheid in South Africa in any way.