The Impact of the Armed Struggle for National Liberation in Southern Africa on International Law, 1968-1974

The international relations of post-World War II have been characterised by an armed struggle of national character, especially in southern Africa. It is in some southern African countries where national liberation movements employed the armed struggle to overthrow various systems of domination such as colonialism, imperialism, apartheid, and minority rule. Armed struggle is the principal type of duel in wars, military conflicts, armed insurrections, rebellions, putsches, etc., with the use of forces and fires to conduct military actions on varied scales. For others, however, armed struggle is the main form of struggle in a war. Its specific substance consists of the organised employment of armed forces to attain certain political and military ends. Arguably, the use of the armed struggle for national liberation in southern Africa impacted international law. The impact of the armed struggle for national liberation on international law is obscured and creates a gap that has not yet been studied by scholars in Africa's legal history. An appropriate starting point for understanding the impact of the armed struggle for national liberation in southern Africa on international law is examining the decisions of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that concerned human rights in armed conflicts. This requires an examination of those that were adopted during the period from 1968 to 1974. Analysis of the GA decisions is critical because it reveals why the ex-colonial states in the UN supported the view that the African conflicts had an international character and why they are classified as international armed conflicts for the full application of humanitarian law. This paper concerns the impact of the armed struggle for national liberation in southern Africa on international law. It adopts a qualitative research method to describe that impact. The paper sheds light on peace and conflict resolution.