Dictionary definition: "Apartheid" 
[Afrikaans, from apart, "apart - hood"], a political and socially implemented doctrine used in the Republic of South Africa: A system aimed at achieving separate development in all areas through political, social, economic and spatial separation of the races. The apartheid system was opposed almost entirely across the world, since it led to the suppression of all "non-white" South Africans and reinforced the power base of South Africa's white minority.
Apartheid led to South Africa's political isolation. Black African political organizations fought against the apartheid system from the very beginning. All apartheid laws were abolished under the premiership of President de Klerk in 1990/91.
[Taken and translated from: Bertelsmann Discovery Lexikon 1997]

Important Documents

03 September 2001
WCAR NGO forum declaration (DOC file)