A/HRC/4/19 page 2 Summary This report by the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 1/102. It examines in greater detail the current worrying trends in racism and xenophobia to which the Special Rapporteur drew attention when introducing his interim report (A/61/335) to the General Assembly at its sixty-first session. The present report should be read in conjunction with the updated report on political platforms which promote or incite racial discrimination (A/HRC/4/44) submitted by the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council at its current session. It follows the reports submitted by the Special Rapporteur to the Commission on Human Rights at the sixty-second session, including his general report on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (E/CN.4/2006/16), the report on the situation of Arab and Muslim populations in various parts of the world following the events of 11 September 2001 (E/CN.4/2006/17) and the report on political platforms which promote or incite racial discrimination (E/CN.4/2006/54). Efforts to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance encounter a number of serious major challenges manifested by the following worrying trends: the resurgence of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia and their violent manifestations; the growing “democratic legitimization” of racism and xenophobia, demonstrated by the spread of racist and xenophobic political platforms and by their implementation through alliances with Governments, which enable the political parties responsible for these platforms to invest them with legal and democratic legitimacy; the criminalization of and the exclusively security-based approach to immigration, asylum and the status of foreigners and national minorities; the general increase in the defamation of religions and racial and religious hatred, in particular, anti-Semitism and Christianophobia, and more particularly, Islamophobia; the ideological and intellectual acceptance of racist and xenophobic speech and rhetoric, which favours an ethnic or racial interpretation of social, economic and political problems and their legal instrumentalization, as demonstrated by the tendency to establish a dogmatic, ideological and political hierarchy of the freedoms guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, such as freedom of expression, to the detriment of other freedoms and restrictions and limitations contained in the Covenant; the increasing importance in identity constructs of a rejection of diversity and resistance to the process of multiculturalism of societies; and the increase in violent manifestations of racism in sport, in particular, football. To reverse these worrying political, legal, ethical and cultural trends, the Special Rapporteur is continuing to promote, in all his activities, the development of a dual strategy political and legal, on the one hand, and cultural and ethical, on the other - in order to identify and combat manifestations and expressions of racism and xenophobia, as well as their root causes. The political strategy aims to arouse and strengthen the political will of Governments to combat racism and xenophobia, and the legal strategy must enable States to adopt the legal and administrative instruments and mechanisms for this purpose, in line with the Durban Declaration