asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will outline his general principles of policy in regard to sporting links with countries practising oppression or discrimination that is of an ethnic, religious, racial or political kind; and if he will outline the special features of countries with whom he believes sporting links to be undesirable on the basis of these general criteria.
Written Answers. - Sporting Links Policy.
21.
Successive Governments have long based their policy in the sporting area on respect for the Olympic principle of non-discrimination in sport. In keeping with the Olympic principle and, more generally, with the fundamental human rights provisions of the United Nations Charter, the international community has rightly condemned the system of apartheid in South Africa, which is unique in that it is an institutionalised form of discrimination, based solely on race and implemented by the laws of South Africa in the interest of discriminating against the black and coloured populations. It touches every aspect of life in South Africa, including the organisation of and participation in sport.