In 2023, AfriForum continued its international awareness campaign at the United Nations (UN). Just like our 2022 visit to the UN, this was a multifaceted and multipurpose campaign.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
AfriForum’s campaign kicked off through our participation in CERD’s review process of the state of racial discrimination in South Africa. The South African government appeared before CERD for a quadrennial evaluation of its record in combating discrimination.
AfriForum submitted a report to CERD in 2022, after which we were invited to submit an additional follow-up report in 2023. Our 2022 report documented in detail several of the worst examples of racial discrimination against minorities since 2020. This included cases of racial discrimination by the government as well as cases by others due to government pressure, as well as hate speech against minorities, such as “Kill the Boer”.
In our 2023 report, we specifically focused on the more than 116 race-based laws enacted by the South African government since 1994. The submission of the 2023 report was also accompanied by an opportunity to make an oral presentation before this UN committee. Information from both AfriForum’s reports and my presentation was used during the review process by CERD to question the South African government.
I used the presentation opportunity to supply more examples of discrimination, such as the Dis-Chem memo that announced a moratorium on the employment and promotion of white people. Solidarity also handed in a report and made a presentation, so fortunately, I was not the only Afrikaner at CERD’s headquarters in Geneva. AfriForum and Solidarity also participated in a question-and-answer session with the committee members, during which we provided more details regarding our submissions.