Apartheid and Human Rights Word Bank

A comprehensive vocabulary review set covering key historical, political, and human rights concepts related to the resistance against apartheid in South Africa and international declarations of human rights.

Multi-racialism

The involvement of more than one race.

Power-sharing

A government that consists of more than one party.

State of emergency

A disaster in which a government suspends normal constitutional procedures in order to regain control.

Apartheid

A policy governing relations between South Africa's white minority and non-white majority that sanctioned racial segregation and political and economic discrimination; a system of institutionalized racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s.

Segregate

To keep separate.

Segregation

An act of setting someone or something apart from others, which can be based on race, religion, ethnic group, or minority groups.

Massacre

An indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of many people; the killing of many people in a violent and cruel way.

Protest movement

A public expression of objection, disapproval, or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

A special group tasked to ensure that South Africans exposed the truth about their deeds during apartheid with the intention to heal or reconcile.

Exile

Being banned and living away from your native country.

Resolution 134

A conclusion reached by the United Nations, after the killings at Sharpeville, stating that the South African government was disturbing world peace, that apartheid was cruel, and that the country should be sanctioned.

Sanction

An action where other countries end their economic and political relationships with South Africa.

Commonwealth

The organization to which all British colonies belong.

Uprising

Actions taken against authorities, usually aggressive.

Repress

Using force to control and stop people from doing something.

Repression

The use of force or violence to control a group of people.

Stay-away

The act of refusing to work, or staying away from your work.

Oppressed

Dominated or made to suffer.

Censorship

The removal of certain information considered offensive or a threat to security.

Prohibition

A law that stops something.

Rescinded

Officially cancelled.

Human Rights

The basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world from birth to death, such as freedom of speech and opinion, right to work, and education.

Resistance

A refusal to accept or comply with something.

Non-Violent Resistance

The practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political non-cooperation, or other methods, while remaining nonviolent.

Defiance Campaign

The first large-scale, multi-racial political mobilization against apartheid laws under common leadership of the different racial groups.

Treason

The crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow the government.

Freedom Charter

The statement containing the core principles of the South African Congress Alliance and its allies.

Banned

To prohibit or not allow the use, performance, or distribution of something through legal means.

Programme of Action

A non-violent resistance campaign which involved civil disobedience, strikes, boycotts, and other forms of non-violent resistance against apartheid.

Four Freedoms

Freedoms adopted by the Allies during World War II, which included freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.