UN General Assembly
1988

The rising tide of black resistance to apartheid is evidence that the black majority is undaunted by the brutal and savage repression of frequent and lengthy states of emergency such as the present one. Democracy, racial desegregation, social justice and the abolition of apartheid are now considered by many to be indispensable life-and-death issues. Economic pressures have forced South Africa to offer the black majority only trivial concessions thus far. What is required is a range of economic sanctions that are sufficiently costly to compel South Africa to initiate the process of dialogue with representatives of the African National Congress and other legitimate organizations of the black population with a view to establishing a non-racial democratic Government. The sovereign States neighbours of South Africa ought to be protected from incursions and bombing by the South African military, which murder innocent civilians and wreak havoc on their societies and economies.