E/CN.4/1997/71 page 3 INTRODUCTION A. Background 1. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance was established for three years by the Commission on Human Rights by resolution 1993/20. By its decision 1993/258, the Economic and Social Council confirmed the mandate and assigned it to Mr. Maurice Glèlè-Ahanhanzo. 2. The Special Rapporteur submitted annual reports (E/CN.4/1994/66; E/CN.4/1995/78 and Add.1; E/CN.4/1996/72 and Add.1 to 4) to the Commission at its fiftieth, fifty-first and fifty-second sessions. Since 1994, the Commission has invited him to report to the General Assembly. He thus presented interim reports to the General Assembly at its forty-ninth and fiftieth sessions (A/49/677 and A/50/476). 3. At its fifty-second session the Commission, by resolution 1996/21, expressed its full support and appreciation for the Special Rapporteur's work and decided to extend his mandate for a period of three years so that he could examine incidents of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, any form of discrimination, inter alia, against Blacks, Arabs and Muslims, xenophobia, negrophobia, anti-Semitism and related intolerance, as well as governmental measures to overcome them, and to report on those matters on a yearly basis to the Commission, beginning at its fifty-third session, and to the General Assembly at its fifty-first session. 4. The Economic and Social Council having approved the renewal of the Special Rapporteur's mandate for three years by decision 1996/259, the Special Rapporteur submitted an interim report to the General Assembly at its fifty-first session (A/51/301). 5. This report supplements that submitted to the General Assembly, thereby providing a comprehensive response to the Commission's request as indicated in paragraph 2 above. It comprises four chapters followed by conclusions and recommendations: chapter I deals with the Special Rapporteur's activities in 1996; chapter II deals with manifestations of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia; chapter III concerns action by Governments; and chapter IV covers communications on allegations of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia. 6. The Special Rapporteur has received and made use of the information supplied by Governments and non-governmental organizations 1 in response to the note verbale and letter sent to them by the Centre for Human Rights on 19 April 1996. B. Working method 7. Before embarking on the various aspects of this report it should be explained that, since his mandate had remained essentially unchanged, there is no need to redefine the working methods and concepts which the Special Rapporteur has described at length in previous reports. 2 The phenomena studied are also unchanging in their nature, causes and vectors. 3