E/CN.4/2002/24 page 7 From 3 to 5 September, he took part in the parallel meeting entitled “Voices of victims”, where he heard poignant accounts from victims of anti-Semitism in Austria and of murderous racist violence against persons of African origin in Colombia. 6. The Special Rapporteur drew the following lessons from the Durban Conference: (a) Durban was the culmination of a long process - filled with pitfalls and critical moments - that enabled the international community to achieve reconciliation by acknowledging the scourges represented by slavery and the slave trade and classifying them as crimes against humanity; (b) The equal dignity of human beings in all places and at all times, whether based on religion or reason, was reaffirmed; thus racism and racial discrimination, the products of archaic thinking, were denounced as obstacles to human progress; (c) The dialogue between civilizations proposed provided responses to the problem of achieving respect for cultural and human diversity, in particular that of accepting difference in others in the face of dominant societies’ attempts to assimilate other individuals or groups into their own culture, to exclude them or to eliminate them; (d) It was acknowledged that effective action to combat racism and racial discrimination required a combination of educational, criminal, economic and social measures; (e) It was also acknowledged that changing racist mentalities required education, notably an educational process that noted the evils of racism and racial discrimination while praising human and cultural diversity and encouraging interpersonal and intercultural exchanges; (f) The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action constitute a fundamental document which should be further developed and implemented without delay in the interest of mutually-supportive and effective action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, through human rights education and economic, social and cultural development measures designed to correct persistent forms of structural racism and eradicate the social inequalities which represent the legacy of racism and feed poverty. B. Participation in the work of the eighth annual meeting of special rapporteurs/representatives, experts and chairpersons of working groups of the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and of the advisory services programme 7. From 18 to 22 June 2001, the Special Rapporteur participated in the 8th meeting of special rapporteurs/representatives, experts and chairpersons of working groups of the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights. He was elected Chairperson of the meeting, with Mr. Abid Hussain, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, as Rapporteur. The reader is referred to the report of the meeting (E/CN.4/2002/14), which has been submitted to the Commission on Human Rights under items 4 and 18 of the provisional agenda.