E/CN.4/1997/71 page 6 A. 18. Contributions by Governments and public bodies to action to combat racism The Government of Cuba stated that: “At the dawn of a new millennium we are all indignant witnesses to a rebirth and recrudescence of racist propaganda, incitement to ethnic hatred, and practices betraying feelings of racial and xenophobic superiority and exclusivity while at the same time extreme-rightist political organizations and neo-Nazi parties are emerging in developed societies and operating with complete impunity. “Freedom of expression and association cannot continue to be used as a means of or pretext for fomenting or tolerating xenophobic hatred and violence: that would be an unacceptably biased and retrograde view of how expression should be given to human rights. “Racism would appear to be a universal evil, but in the global context, one cannot but remark that it is at its most alarming and perfidious in the developed world. Strategies to combat racism must not lose sight of this fact if efforts are not to be dissipated and priorities muddled. “When barriers are erected against immigrants, or deep cuts are made in welfare budgets, or programmes intended to encourage the social integration of minorities are dismantled, all with complete sang-froid and disdain for the human condition, and when the most basic rights to education and health denied to the children of immigrants, as Act No. 187 of the State of California in the United States would do, these practices are becoming institutionalized. “Even as the Commission on Human Rights was in session, the entire world was shaken by dreadful pictures of the ill-treatment and beatings inflicted on a group of Mexican immigrants, including women and children, in the United States near the border between the two countries. But what we saw was not the whole story, because similar and worse incidents occur there almost every day with no indiscreet camera around to record them. “The Special Rapporteur and the United Nations itself must take up the challenge, tackling the problem of eliminating racism and its side effects from the face of the Earth with renewed vigour and energy. “Tireless efforts to attain the goals and objectives of the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination are essential. Additional financing must also be made available for that purpose. “Cuba therefore believes it vital for all parts of the United Nations which are involved in the programme to carry it out more determinedly; in that context, as we have said before, we believe that the efforts of the Special Rapporteur and the Commission on Human Rights are of the greatest importance.