United Nations Security Council Resolution 556

United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

Security Council Resolution
United Nations Security Council Resolution
A United Nations Security Council resolution is a UN resolution adopted by the fifteen members of the Security Council; the UN body charged with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security"....

556, adopted on October 23, 1984, after recalling 554

United Nations Security Council Resolution 554

United Nations Security Council Resolution 554, adopted on August 17, 1984, after recalling 473 , the Council condemned the 1984 general election in South Africa and the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act ....

(1984) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

, the Council expressed its alarm at the killing of anti-apartheid demonstrators in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, reaffirming that the country's disregard for world opinion will lead to a further escalation of the "explosive situation".

The Council reiterated its opposition to apartheid, demanding the immediate cessation of massacres in South Africa and the release of all political prisoner

Political prisoner

According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....

s. It also called on all Member States and international organisations to assist the South African people in their "legitimate struggle for the full exercise of the right to self-determination".

Finally, Resolution 556 called for the dismantling of the bantustan

Bantustan

A bantustan was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa , as part of the policy of apartheid...

s, the removal of bans on anti-apartheid parties, individuals and news media, and requested the Secretary-General to monitor the situation.

The resolution was approved by 14 votes to none against, while the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

abstained

Abstention

Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by...

from voting.

See also