A/49/677 English Page 11 42. The Special Rapporteur also received assistance from the International Labour Office, particularly the Migration and Population Service, with which he held a working meeting. 43. Lastly, the Special Rapporteur would like to mention the communications he received from the Council of Europe, the European Commission of Human Rights and the League of Arab States. 44. Some non-governmental organizations, some of which are in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, also provided information to the Special Rapporteur. These were: Anti-Racism Information Service, the International Association against Torture, the World Jewish Congress, the International Council of Jewish Women, the International Federation of Human Rights, the World Council of Churches, the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism, the International Women’s Rights Action Watch, the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, the Roma National Congress, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples. 45. The information received was used only when it proved useful to this study. In addition, a number of Governments affirmed that racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia did not exist in their territory and in most cases they indicated the steps they had taken to prevent them. 18/ This information was supplemented, where necessary, by information gleaned from scientific publications and the press. C. Missions 46. Missions, which both the Commission on Human Rights and the Economic and Social Council have recognized as useful 19/ are intended to allow the Special Rapporteur to assess the conditions actually prevailing in a country by giving him direct access to first-hand reports and to the dialogue established with the authorities of the countries concerned and key figures in civil society. Under no circumstances are missions intended to indict the Governments visited; on the contrary, they seek to bring to light, where possible, the efforts that are being made to rectify a situation identified as negative. 47. Missions are selected taking into account the criterion of geographical distribution and bearing in mind that racial discrimination is a phenomenon which, because of its multifaceted nature, occurs on all five continents. 48. By the end of 1994, the Special Rapporteur will have visited two countries: the United States of America, which he visited from 10 to 21 October, and the United Kingdom, which he will visit from 6 to 16 December. The reports on these missions will be issued as addenda to the report which will be submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-first session, in February 1995, but the Special Rapporteur intends to give a brief summary in this report of cases which he learned about during his mission to the United States of America, and to give an idea of the general lines which his inquiries will follow in the United Kingdom. /...