E/CN.4/1996/72 page 17 63. Whether in the United States of America or in Brazil, in Germany or in France and the United Kingdom, the Special Rapporteur was able to make his own observations in the street; he watched television, read the local press and had conversations with ordinary citizens in order to gather impressions and form opinions on possible problems. The information obtained, far from leading to purely subjective conclusions based on personal impressions, has been a source of the greatest importance for the studies made by the Special Rapporteur. 64. On two occasions, moreover, he was fortunate to arrive at a time when urgent topical issues were the subject of intense discussion. One example was during his mission to the United States when the publication of the book by Charles Murray, The Bell Curve, was causing a stir throughout the country because of the racist conclusions contained in the book. Similarly, during his visit to the United Kingdom, the Government and the Labour opposition were engaged in a confrontation over the immigration rules and the right of asylum, each accusing the other of "playing the racist card". 65. Furthermore, the missions have helped to provide information on the work of the United Nations in combating racism and racial discrimination. Indeed, most of those whom the Special Rapporteur met, in particular the representatives of non-governmental organizations and community associations, had a vague idea that there was some arrangement for promoting and protecting human rights. But to see an actual representative of a United Nations body coming to see them and taking an interest in their fate gave them encouragement and fresh hope. That was, for example, the impression which the Special Rapporteur gained on his brief visit to Belem in the north of Brazil to meet representatives of a non-governmental organization, left to its own devices and without resources, but working determinedly on behalf of the Blacks of the State of Pará, and in particular the Quilombos communities on the borders of Amazonia. 66. As he was putting the final touches to his report on Sunday, 28 January 1996, the Special Rapporteur saw on television scenes of rioting among Jews in Jerusalem as the Falashas (Jews of Ethiopian origin) denounced the racism and racial discrimination from which they claimed to suffer in Israel. The Special Rapporteur approached the Israeli authorities in order to have more comprehensive information on the nature of those demonstrations and on the measures which had been taken by the public authorities and on the initiatives of civil society. 67. An enormous task still remains to be completed in view of the complexity of the issues, in all five continents, covered by the mandate. Field missions should be continued in Africa, in Latin America and in the Caribbean and in Asia, in Oceania and in the Middle East in order to provide a panoramic view of the contemporary forms and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, which are terrible phenomena from which no region is exempt and which affect the countries of the North as well as those of the South. The Special Rapporteur earnestly hopes that the countries in those continents will receive him and will provide him with all necessary assistance for the discharge of his mission.