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The word "apartheid" means segregation. It commonly refers to the laws which governed the Republic of South Africa during the period from the 1950s up until 1990.

Apartheid laws in South Africa favoured white supremacy and largely marginilised the non white communities. The apartheid era is famous for the oppression that was carried out on behalf of the state against South Africa's many anti-apartheid activists.

Although apartheid formally ended in the early 1990s, the many legacies it left behind are still prevalent in South Africa and thus the term is still widely used in policy documents that aim to pave the way for a better South Africa.

The term apartheid is often used to describe attempts by other states to achieve ethnic cleansing. Activists rely on the sympathy that the term invokes to win support in other parts of the world. Most recently, Palestinian rights groups have accused Israel of being guilty of apartheid. In other cases, human rights groups have accused Arab states of apartheid by treating Shiite and other minority sectarian groups as second class citizens.

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14y ago

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