UN General Assembly
2012

﻿I thank you, sir, for the opportunity to address the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh general debate. Let me start by congratulating Mr. Vuk Jeremić and the Republic of Serbia on his election to preside over the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly. We also acknowledge the contribution of the President of the Assembly at its sixty-sixth session, Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser. South Africa fundamentally believes in the principles and purposes contained in the Charter of the United Nations, and correctly so, given our nation’s history. This year, we are proudly celebrating 100 years of our people’s self less struggle for freedom, led by the African National Congress movement. We recall with great appreciation the immense contribution of the United Nations to the creation of a free and democratic South Africa. In 1966, the General Assembly labelled apartheid a crime against humanity in resolution 2202 A (XXI), which ultimately led to the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, later known as the Apartheid Convention. The United Nations defined the crime of apartheid