International Law and Xenophobia in South Africa

Abstract:

For centuries, international law has regulated the actions and international relations of sovereign states. Though, some of these states in the international system have proven themselves to be compliant with international law in certain aspects of their complex relations, they have performed unsatisfactorily in others. The sporadic outburst of xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals in the Republic of South Africa remains an instance of a state’s failure to fulfil its obligation as articulated in the international conventions it acceded to. Since the post-apartheid era began in 1994, there has been an influx of migrants into South Africa. Sadly, these migrants, mostly Black Africans, have been discriminated against and occasionally attacked by resentful locals. The objective of the paper is to briefly point out South Africa’s obligation as a state party to several treaties that guard against racial discrimination and, the failure of successive South African governments to fulfil it. The historical approach was adopted for the paper and, the qualitative method of secondary data collection. The paper concluded that henceforth, South Africa as a civilised state in the international community, should perform in good faith its obligation of safeguarding the fundamental human rights of immigrants within its territorial jurisdiction.