1974 — South Africa Shut Out of the UN

On November 12, 1974, the UN General Assembly took an unprecedented step: it suspended South Africa from participating in its work over the policy of apartheid. Years of pressure from newly independent African and Caribbean nations had finally tipped the balance. The decision did not arrive suddenly; it was the harvest of patient organizing by states that had themselves only lately won seats in that hall, and meant to use them.

South Africa kept its membership on paper, but its seat sat empty and its voice was silenced in the great hall. It was barred from Assembly sessions for two decades, until it returned in 1994, after the end of apartheid.