South West Africa (Namibia) (1963–1988)

The question of the independence of Namibia from South African governance was the subject of significant GA and SC attention from the mid-1960s onwards, including notable interplay and attention to issues of sanctions. In 1920, South Africa was granted a mandate to administer Namibia (at the time known as South West Africa) by the League of Nations.¹ However, almost from the onset there was internal resistance within Namibia to South African governance. Beginning in the early 1950s, the GA took a number of measures to try to address the status of Namibia, including referring the situation to the ICJ in 1949 to advise on its status,² establishing a committee to supervise South African administration of its mandate in 1950 (A/RES/449(V)[A]), extending the committee’s mandate in 1953 (A/RES/749(VIII)[A]) and subsequently setting up a good offices committee in 1957 (A/RES/1143(XII)).

Amidst a situation of continued violence, including reports of violent responses to protestors by South African police, the GA in 1963 condemned the Government of South Africa for its actions and urged all States to refrain from supplying any arms or military equipment as well as petroleum to South Africa (A/RES/1899(XVIII), para. 7). It further reaffirmed this position in 1965 (A/RES/2074(XX), para. 11). Then on 27 October 1966, in resolution 2145(XXI), the GA declared that the mandate for South Africa to govern South West Africa (Namibia) was terminated and that from thenceforth “South West Africa comes under direct responsibility of the United Nations” (A/RES/2145(XXI), paras. 4, 5).

In the years following this 1966 declaration invalidating South Africa’s continued governance of the territory, the GA and also the SC passed a number of resolutions that called for punitive measures (i.e. diplomatic cut-offs), in connection with these bodies’ calls for South Africa to withdraw (and its continued refusal to do so). On 12 June 1968, the GA passed resolution 2372(XXII) in which it reiterated further that South Africa’s continued presence in Namibia was illegal and that South Africa should withdraw immediately (A/RES/2372(XXII), paras. 6–8, 12). It also condemned those States that continued to have political, economic and military cooperation with South Africa, called upon Member States to “desist from dealings” with the South African Government that might “have the effect of perpetuating South Africa’s illegal occupation of Namibia” (ibid., paras. 8, 9), and called on the SC to “take all appropriate steps” to secure South Africa’s compliance with its resolutions and to withdraw from Namibia (ibid., para. 13).

The SC did take up the matter in 1969 and 1970. It passed two resolutions in 1969 that committed to consider Chapter VII or other more “necessary” measures in the case of continued non-compliance (S/RES/264; S/RES/269), and/or instituted committees that might consider economic measures by Member States (S/RES/276; S/RES/283) in 1970. However, these all fell short of sanctions or other more coercive measures.

In 1978, the SC had set out a plan for elections leading to the territory’s independence (S/RES/435; S/RES/439). In January 1981, as part of his good offices, the Secretary-General helped convene a meeting in Geneva, for the purpose of facilitating a ceasefire agreement and setting a date for implementing an SC-approved plan.³ In response to these failed diplomatic efforts, during a plenary meeting of its 35th session (convened between September 1980 and March 1981) the GA adopted 10 linked resolutions on Namibia (A/RES/35/227). Among the recommendations, one of these resolutions called for the SC to “impose comprehensive mandatory sanctions against South Africa, as provided for under Chapter VII” (A/RES/35/227 (J), para. 13).⁴ In April, the SC revisited the Namibia issue and considered four draft resolutions that would have imposed mandatory sanctions (of various levels of comprehensiveness).⁵ None of these draft resolutions passed due to the vetoes of France, the UK and the US.⁶

The veto prompted the 8th emergency special session called in relation to the UFP resolution. Within this session, on 14 September 1981, the GA adopted a resolution (by a vote of 117-0-25) that urged the SC and Member States to impose comprehensive mandatory sanctions against South Africa, to cease all dealings with the country and for the UN Council for Namibia to monitor the boycott (A/RES/ES-8/2). The SC did not fully take up these recommendations. It did not make sanctions mandatory beyond the 1977 arms embargo (S/RES/418), but by the late 1980s, Western States had imposed bilateral sanctions on South Africa, resulting in great economic cost and increased international pressure for the latter. These sanctions were connected not only to South Africa’s conduct in Namibia but also to the system of apartheid within its own territory (see also the case study on sanctions on South Africa). The GA continued to pass annual resolutions urging that measures be taken to support Namibia’s independence, and reinforcing its calls for strengthening and enforcing sanctions, up until South Africa agreed in December 1988 to take steps toward Namibian independence.⁷ Namibia was recognized formally as an independent nation on 21 March 1990.