E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.1 page 10 on the dignity of the human being. [...]" (art. 1); "The fundamental objectives [of Brazil] are the following: I. To build a free, fair and mutually supportive society; [...] III. To eradicate poverty and marginalization and reduce social and regional inequalities; [...] IV. To promote the well-being of all, without prejudice as to origin, race, sex, colour, age or any other form of discrimination." (art. 3); "[Brazil] adheres to the following principles in its international relations: [...] II. The primacy of human rights; [...] VIII. Rejection of terrorism and racism [...]" (art. 4). Article 5 of the Constitution stipulates: "The law shall punish any discrimination that undermines fundamental rights and freedoms" (para. XLI); "The practice of racism constitutes an offence for which no statute of limitations shall be applicable and for which there shall be no release on bail; it shall entail a prison term as stipulated by the law" (para. XLII). 30. "The expression ’Negro’, an official in the Department of Education explains, is not negative; children are taught to see that Black people exist and that that is the way things are. Other segments of Brazilian society are referred to similarly, such as ’Germans’, ’Japanese’, or ’Italians’, of the ’German’ or ’Japanese’ community or colony. We say we are ’Brazilians’. The term ’Negro’, for example, only becomes derogatory when it is accompanied by an adjective, as in ’the wandering Negro’ or when Blacks are denied entry to nightclubs or employment; it can even be used in an affectionate and tender sense: ’mi negrigna’, my little Negress, when speaking of one’s lady-love." 31. Thus there is neither racism nor racial discrimination in Brazil: it is categorically prohibited by the Constitution. The discrimination is economic and social, a product of history; it has become structural. It would correspond to what is generally described today as exclusion. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (General Assembly resolution 2106 A (XX), annex), indicates that "the term ’racial discrimination’ shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life" (art. 1, para. 1). Societies today are experiencing the phenomenon of exclusion, in Europe especially, but also in some countries of Latin America. 32. In Brazil, even though racial discrimination is prohibited by the Constitution and represents an offence that is not subject to a statute of limitations, even though it is denied as a racial phenomenon, it has to be acknowledged that what is generally considered to be mere economic and social discrimination is exclusion based on race, colour, descent or ethnic or national origin, aimed at Indians, Blacks and people of mixed parentage. As the eminent Brazilian professor and statesman, Cristovam Buarque, Governor of Brasilia, said in his meeting with the Special Rapporteur, it is "apartançao sociais" that conveys exclusion, i.e. the "social apartheid" experienced by indigenous people, Afro-Brazilians, people of mixed parentage and poor Whites in the North and the South. Many people with whom the Special Rapporteur spoke feel that racism and racial discrimination exist on a frequent, even daily, basis, but have become an ordinary feature of life.