Petitions and communications relating -to the Rehoboth Community of South West Africa

UN General Assembly, Petitions and communications relating -to the Rehoboth Community of South West Africa, A/RES/935, UN General Assembly, 3 December 1955, https://www.refworld.org/legal/resolution/unga/1955/en/10270 [accessed 22 April 2025]
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X. RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED ON THE REPORTS OF THE FOURTH COMMITTEE
935. Petitions and communications relating - to the Rehoboth Community of South West Africa

The General Assembly, Having accepted the advisory opinion[1] of 11 July 1950 of the International Court of Justice on the question of South West Africa, including the opinion that petitions concerning the Territory of South West Africa are to be transmitted by the Government of the Union of South Africa "to the General Assembly of the United Nations, which is legally qualified to deal with them", Having authorized the Committee on South West Africa, by resolution 749 A (VIII) of 28 November 1953, to examine petitions in accordance with the Mandates procedure of the League of Nations, Having received a report from the Committee on South West Africa dealing with a petition, undated, from Mr. A. J. Beukes, Mr. P. Diegaard and Mr. A. van Wyk, members of the Rehoboth Community of South West Africa, and related communications from the Rehoboth Community received on 22 November 1954, and from Mr. Jacobus Beukes, dated 27 November 1954[2] Noting that the Government of the Union of South Africa, by a letter[3] dated 25 March 1954, has informed the Committee that it has "never recognized any obligation to submit . . petitions to any international body since the demise of the League of Nations", Noting that the petitioners request that their right of self-government under the Constitutions of the Rehoboth Community of 1870-1874 be restored, and seek an interpretation of the legal status of the Rehoboth Community; that they request that Proclamations Nos. 28 of 1923, 31 of 1924, 9 of 1928, 29 of 1929, 17 of 1932, 5 of 1935, 20 of 1935, 16 of 1938 and 22 of 1941, issued by the Administrator of South West Africa and applied to the Rehoboth Community, be declared null and void in that Community, that the boundaries of the Rehoboth Community, as allegedly recognized by the German Government, be restored and that certain lands allegedly alienated unlawfully from the Rehoboth Community be returned to that Community.

I. With respect to the status of the Rehoboth Community:

Noting that a Treaty of Protection and Friendship was concluded in 1885 between the German Government and the Rehoboth Community, as an agreement between two Governments, whereby the German Government agreed to assume the protection of the Rehoboth Community, while recognizing the rights and freedom which the Rehobothians had established for themselves, Noting that the German Government abrogated this Treaty in 1915, when the Rehobothians refused to join German forces and to provide men to guard captured Union of South Africa prisoners during the First World War, Noting that the Administrator of South West Africa as representing the Government of the Union of South Africa on the one part and the Kapitein and members of the Raad of the Rehoboth Community for themselves and their lawful successors as representing the Rehoboth Community on the other part concluded an Agreement on 17 August 1923 "regulating the future administration by the Government of the Union of South Africa in its capacity as Mandatory of the territory situate within the district of Rehoboth occupied by the said Community known as the Gebiet", that this Agreement was ratified and confirmed by Proclamation No. 28 of 1923 and came into force on 1 October 1923, Noting further that this Agreement provides, inter alia, that:

(a) Subject to the provisions of the Agreement, "the Administration concedes to the Rehoboth Community the right of self-government within the Gebiet according to the laws presently to be found in the Law Book of the Raad of the Rehoboth Community and such additions thereto or amendments thereof as may from time to time lawfully be enacted by the Raad of the Rehoboth Community", subject to the assent of the Administrator to any law passed by the Raad after 1 October 1923,

(b) "The Administrator shall, after consultation with the Raad of the Rehoboth Community, possess the power to legislate for the Gebiet and to extend thereto the operation of any law, whether at present in force in the Territory of South West Africa or hereafter enacted, if he considers such legislation or extension to be expedient or desirable in the interest of either the Territory of South West Africa or the Gebiet",

Noting that in 1924 political dissension within the Rehoboth Community gave rise to a situation which, in the view of the Administration, seriously endangered the maintenance of law, order and good government both within the Gebiet and in the Territory of South West Africa, and that as a consequence the Administrator issued Proclamation No. 31 of 1924, declaring that the Kapitein and Raad and all persons acting under their authority should cease to function within the Gebiet and vesting all their powers, functions and duties in the Magistrate of the Rehoboth District who was to exercise these powers, functions and duties "in accordance with the laws of the said Community at present in force within the Gebiet and in conformity with the provisions" of the Agreement of 17 August 1923, Noting further that, in the application of laws to the Gebiet subsequent to the issuance of Proclamation No. 31 of 1924, the Administrator in each instance cited the 1923 Agreement and referred to his power thereunder to apply laws to the Gebiet after consultation with the Raad, to the transfer of the functions and powers of the Raad to the Magistrate and, consequently, to his consultation with the Magistrate with respect to the application of the law in question,

1. Decides to inform the petitioners that the Territory of South West Africa remains a Territory under the international Mandate assumed by the Union of South Africa on 17 December 1920, and that the provisions of the Mandate and of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations accordingly apply to the Rehoboth Community, which constitutes a part of the Mandated Territory;

2. Considers that, subject to the terms of the Mandate, the administration by the Union of South Africa of the territory known as the Rehoboth Gebiet continues to be regulated by the Agreement of 17 August 1923 concluded between the Administrator of the Mandated Territory as representing the Government of the Union of South Africa on the one part and the Kapitein and members of the Raad of the Rehoboth Community for themselves and their lawful successors as representing the Rehoboth Community on the other part;

3. Considers that the permanent transfer of powers, functions and duties from representatives of the Rehoboth Community duly elected under the laws of that Community to an official appointed as Magistrate of the Rehoboth District would not be in accordance with the terms of the Agreement of 17 August 1923;

4. Further considers that consultation by the Administrator with the Magistrate of the Rehoboth District for the purpose of applying laws to the Rehoboth Gebiet subsequent to 1924 does not fulfil the condition of the Agreement of 17 August 1923 for consultation with the Raad of the Rehoboth Community;

5. Recommends therefore that the Union of South Africa, as the Mandatory Power, take the necessary steps to correct this situation;

II. With respect to the boundaries of the Rehoboth Gebiet:

Noting that the boundaries of the Rehoboth Gebiet were defined in the schedule to the Agreement of 17 August 1923 and appear to have been accepted by the Kapitein and members of the Raad of the Rehoboth Community for themselves and their lawful successors as representing the Rehoboth Community, Is of the opinion that any claims which the Rehoboth Community may have regarding the alleged boundaries of the Gebiet prior to the Agreement of 17 August 1923 appear to have been resolved by that Agreement;

III. With respect to the claims of the Rehoboth Community to certain lands within the Gebiet:

Noting that these claims have been investigated by successive commissions of inquiry, the first of which was appointed in 1922, Recommends that the Union of South Africa, as the Mandatory Power, make every effort toward an early and equitable settlement of these claims. 550th plenary meeting,
3 December 1955.
[1] Ibid. [2] Official Records of the General Assembly, Tenth Session, Supplement No. 12 (A/2913), chap. VIII and annex VI. [3] Ibid., Ninth Session, Supplement No. 14 (A/2666 and Corr. 1), annex I (c).
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