E/CN.4/1999/15
page 19
proceedings and in State bodies and organizations which perform public
functions; lastly, the right to education and public information in their
mother tongue. The constitutions of the member republics contain similar
provisions. Under the Penal Code of the Republic of Serbia (art. 61) and the
Penal Code of the Republic of Montenegro (art. 43, para. 2), anyone who denies
or restricts citizens’ right to use their mother tongue in spoken and written
form is liable to a prison term of up to one year.
III.
CONTEMPORARY MANIFESTATIONS OF RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION,
XENOPHOBIA AND RELATED INTOLERANCE
A.
Activities of the far right and neo-Nazi movements
74.
The association S.O.S. Racismo of Portugal has provided the Special
Rapporteur with documents indicating a resurgence of activity by far right
organizations in Portugal. 2 Africans and Gypsies are the main victims of
this situation. The Extreme right in Portugal is characterized by skinhead
groups and self-formed citizen militias. The militias are usually formed with
the aim of stopping drug-trafficking in certain neighbourhoods, but often
result in the expulsion of the Roma populations, who are seen to be the main
source of drugs in these neighbourhoods, although they are often completely
innocent. The skinhead movement started in 1985 in Portugal, but has really
started to gain adherents during the 1990s. The main organ responsible for
coordinating skinhead activities, which are split among various groups
throughout the country, is the national organization/political party,
Movimento de Acçao Nacional (MAN). Additionally, MAN is in communication with
several similar groups in other countries: the Democratic Party of Germany
(NPD), the Nouveau Front in Switzerland, the National Front in the
United Kingdom, the Third Position in Italy, and the Phalange in Spain. These
organizations generally focus their hatred and violence on immigrant
populations from Africa, and on the Roma and the Jewish populations. In
total, 32 different skinhead organizations have been identified in Portugal.
B.
Discrimination against Blacks (negrophobia)
75.
According to the organization Espacio Afroamericano de Colombia, cases
of discrimination have been reported in the Choco region of Colombia, along
the Pacific coast. An Afro-Colombian leader whom the Special Rapporteur met
when he visited Colombia in 1996, Mr. Francisco Hurtado, was murdered on
16 February 1998, one of a number of acts of violence committed by
paramilitary units. Paramilitary organizations working together with the
local authorities are allegedly suspected of seeking to recover land given to
the Afro-Colombians under “Act No. 70/93”.
76.
In his preceding reports to the Commission and General Assembly
(A/51/301, paras. 34 and 35; E/CN.4/1997/71, para. 125), the Special
Rapporteur referred to alleged racial discrimination against the Falashas, or
Ethiopian Jews, in Israel. One indication of that situation was the
revelation in January 1996 of the fact that blood donated by members of the
Falasha community for transfusions had, without the donors' knowledge, been
put aside to be destroyed on the ground that it might be AIDS-infected. The
Israeli Government promised to provide the Special Rapporteur with the results
of an inquiry conducted by the commission established in response to the