A/50/476 English Page 14 "As your study also notes, these are matters of continuing public concern in the United States, as demonstrated by what you deemed ’the densest web of community organizations in the world’ to fight racial and other forms of discrimination. While most of these organizations are privately supported, almost all receive government support in the form of special tax status. "The problem of racial discrimination in the United States is complex. Your study was necessarily based on a brief visit and on limited information. Accordingly, several elements of your analysis are incomplete or inaccurate. For example, your report notes the five Supreme Court rulings in 1989 that narrowly construed a number of federal statutes regarding the law against employment discrimination (para. 56), but it fails to note that these rulings were overturned by overwhelming majorities in Congress two years later through legislation (the 1991 Civil Rights Act) that clarifies that the statutes were intended to have a broader scope. "We are paying particular note to your recommendations to the United States Government. Some of these are consistent with our national policy and goals, others are not. Some deal with conduct by private actors and social and economic forces not readily subject to government action. Some, particularly your recommendation calling for the prohibition of certain groups and forms of expression, would violate basic constitutional protections of individual rights and are not acceptable to us". 11/ 2. Mission to Brazil 21. The Special Rapporteur visited Brazil from 6 to 17 June 1995, with the agreement of the Brazilian Government. He would like to acknowledge its spirit of cooperation and express his gratitude for the welcome he received. 22. Without going into the details of his findings, which will be the subject of a substantive report, the Special Rapporteur would like to stress that the situation in Brazil is highly complex. It cannot be captured by simple intellectual constructs, mainly because of the complex make-up of the population of Brazil and the biological and cultural intermingling that has taken place. Official statements themselves oscillate between an explicit recognition of the existence of racism and racial discrimination, categorial denial of their existence - "Brazil is not like the United States and South Africa, which have experienced racial segregation or apartheid" - and implicit acceptance of their existence, which can be seen in statements to the effect that economic and social discrimination - "apartaçao social" - does exist against the poor, most of whom happen to be Black, Indian or mestizo. So it would appear from the class and social composition of the political, economic, academic or scientific fields. 23. As many of the people interviewed, government officials and others alike, attempted to explain, the cause-and-effect relationship between the economic and social status of these excluded groups or "social sectors" and the history of the marginalization of Blacks, Indians and mestizos of every stripe and colour should be analysed with reference to historical factors which attended the /...