A/51/301 English Page 11 29 June to 15 July 1996; that visit was coming to an end as this report was being prepared. 14. The Special Rapporteur expresses his gratitude to the Government of Colombia for the welcome he received and the working conditions which enabled him to meet high-level officials such as ministers, heads of department, public defenders and personeros, as well as members of Congress, mayors, and representatives of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in various areas of the country (Bogotá, Buenaventura, Cali, Cartagena, Quibdó, and Tumaco). 15. The Special Rapporteur will present a detailed report to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-third session. For the moment, he has observed that since its colonization, Colombia has experienced persistent racial discrimination: the indigenous population and Black people have been marginalized, and live in deplorable economic and social conditions - they are the poorest groups. Racial discrimination seems almost natural, as can be seen from the weekly television programme Sábado feliz, in which Black people are held up to ridicule. The Constitution of 1991 and Act No. 70 of 1993 recognize and guarantee their rights and their fundamental freedoms, in particular the right to collective ownership of land and the right to preserve their cultural identity. However, equal rights are not yet reflected in everyday life; this is due to considerable socio-economic and political inertia, resistance from financially influential groups, and a climate of violence caused by friction among economic interests. There is political will to carry reforms forward, but they are thwarted by all these obstacles. Nonetheless, indigenous and AfroColombian communities are organizing and mobilizing, campaigning for action to fulfil the hopes which have arisen out of the basic texts. The Government says that it is mindful of these legitimate expectations. 16. The Special Rapporteur has also begun consultations with the Government of Kuwait, to prepare for a possible visit in September, the focus of which would be the situation of male and female migrant workers in that country. 17. It should also be noted that, since the reports on the missions to France, Germany and the United Kingdom were not available in all the working languages, the Commission on Human Rights deferred its consideration of them until its next session. III. CONTEMPORARY FORMS AND MANIFESTATIONS OF RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND XENOPHOBIA 18. The Special Rapporteur wishes to highlight the most critical situations to which the General Assembly could give its attention. He observes that the forms and manifestations of racism and racial discrimination are of a recurrent nature, and they are given particular intensity by the worldwide immigration crisis, renewed denials of the existence of the Nazi holocaust, and profanations and arson in places of worship and cemeteries. /...