The Crime against Humanity of Apartheid under Special Consideration of the Conflict in South Sudan (2002–2005)
Apartheid as a crime against humanity has been widely neglected, despite it being incorporated into the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is claimed that the crime of apartheid became obsolete with the end of the South African regime, and the inclusion of apartheid into the Rome Statute can possibly not be justified. Jurisprudence on the crime of apartheid unrelated to South Africa is virtually non-existent. The objective of my thesis is to release apartheid as a legal concept from its links to South Africa and thus to allow for prosecution. Since apartheid did neither figure in any previous statutes of international criminal tribunals, nor was included into any of the drafts to the Rome Statute, my thesis will attempt to answer the question as to why apartheid was included into the list of crimes against humanity, despite being contentious and widely criticized.
The conflict in Southern Sudan during the civil war (2002–2005) will be used as a case study. Some scholars voiced that South Sudan experienced an apartheid-like situation, with the 'Arab Muslim North' against the 'Christian African South'. Obviously, this description is oversimplified, since the conflict had a multitude of causes. However, it will be used to create a case study.