M

Member

Speaking in the House of Lords on 3 July 2025

Debate

Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2025

Contribution

Remember that Nelson Mandela himself was labelled a terrorist by the apartheid Government, by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, by the United States and by other western Governments during much of the Cold War. Mandela even remained on the US terrorism watch-list until 2008, many years after becoming South Africa’s first democratically elected President and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. After his African National Congress had been banned, Nelson Mandela was convicted for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the apartheid Government when he backed armed struggle, despite strongly opposing the very essence of terrorism, namely violent and indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians. Nevertheless, he became a global icon and in 1996 President Mandela addressed both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall.

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