This book, edited by the ICJ, is a presentation of the trial of the Reverend Dr C. F. Beyers Naudé, the Christian Institute and, by implication, any informed and responsible Christian conscience.
Dr Beyers Naudé affirmed that no one who believes in Jesus Christ should be excluded from any church on the grounds of colour or race, and that the rights to own land where he is domiciled and to take part in the government of a country is part of the dignity of any man.
He was tried for refusing to give certain evidence regarding the Christian Institute. The meticulous records of the trial gradually reverses the situation so that the man in the dock becomes the prosecutor and the prosecutor is in the dock. Here the South African government is put on trial before the court of humanity and history and found guilty by its own testimony. The record of the trial, the appeal, other relevant appeals, and the text of the famous statement Divine or Civil Obedience? are presented in the light on international jurisprudence.
South Africa-trial Beyers Naudé-thematic report-1975-eng (full text in English, PDF)