A/HRC/4/19/Add.3 page 11 22. In their view, however, this increase was not specific to the Russian Federation, but rather had to be viewed as a worldwide trend to the combat of which Russia was contributing. Several officials referred in this regard to the different resolutions sponsored by Russia on the issue of “Inadmissibility of certain practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance” adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly.4 23. Many high-level officials, including the President of the Supreme Court, the Vice-Prosecutor General and high State officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior, expressed the conviction that a majority of such manifestations were acts of hooliganism and vandalism, committed mostly by teenagers who, affected by the deterioration of the socio-economic situation in the country, had lost all perspectives for their future and had integrated the ranks of extremist and neo-Nazi groups. They thus strongly rejected that racism, xenophobia and intolerance had deep roots within the Russian society. 24. In contrast, a few voices within the State institutions, in particular the Chairperson of the Presidential Council on assistance to the development of civil society structures and human rights5 and the Federal Commissioner for Human Rights,6 acknowledged that the roots of the expressions of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia go beyond the socio-economic context and had to be tackled through the deployment of concerted efforts, particularly at the educational level, in order to foster a dynamic of change in the mentality of Russian society. While welcoming recent efforts by law enforcement authorities, they indicated that one of the main remaining challenges was to adequately implement existing legislation in an appropriate and systematic way - thus avoiding the classification of nationalist and religious extremism as acts of hooliganism - in order to send a clear message of unacceptability to the perpetrators of such acts. In their view, other factors contributing to the exacerbation of extremist manifestations were: the growing instrumentalization of racism and discrimination for political aims, often with the support of the media; the lack of an adequate immigration and inter-ethnic relations policy; the high level of corruption among State officials, including the police; and the mounting social inequalities affecting an important sector of the population. 4 Commission on Human Rights resolutions 2004/16 and 2005/5 and General Assembly resolution 60/143 express concern at the increase in the number of racist incidents in several countries, the practices of glorification of the Nazi movement and at the spread and multiplication of various extremist political parties, movements and groups, among them neo-Nazi and skinhead groups. 5 The Presidential Council is entrusted with the role of advising the President of the Russian Federation on the problems of the civil society, notably on human rights. Its membership includes representatives of civil society organizations, including most prominent human rights NGOs. 6 The Federal Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent institution whose main responsibilities in the field of human rights include monitoring of overall situation, promotion of international cooperation, consideration of individual complaints and elaboration of proposals for the improvement of Russian legislation.