E/CN.4/2004/18 page 2 Summary This report is submitted pursuant to resolution 2003/30 adopted by the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-ninth session. It should be read in conjunction with the interim report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance to the General Assembly (A/58/313). Since the last session of the Commission, the Special Rapporteur has endeavoured, in the course of his visits, to pursue his dual strategy against racism, discrimination and xenophobia: on the one hand a legal strategy aimed at extending and confirming the legal and political responses to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and on the other hand an intellectual and ethical strategy aimed at achieving a better understanding of the underlying ideological, cultural and mental causes, foundations, processes and mechanisms that tend to perpetuate and revive the culture and mentality of racism and discrimination. This approach has guided all the Special Rapporteur’s activities, which have focused not only on fieldwork but also on discussion and dialogue with Governments, United Nations agencies, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations. In the course of his recent missions, carried out in 2003, to Canada, Colombia, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, he was able to fulfil his mandate, with a view to promoting the Durban Programme of Action, in a spirit of critical dialogue with the authorities of the countries concerned and by paying careful heed to the communities directly involved and civil society. In preparing the studies requested by the Commission, particularly the study on the situation of Arab and Muslim populations after 11 September 2001 and the study concerning the relationship between democracy and racism, he has taken care to make due reference to the conceptual and programming advances achieved in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. On the basis of the information he has gathered, the Special Rapporteur considers that the present situation as regards racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance reflects the following predominant tendencies: the complex and serious manifestation of a composite new form of discrimination combining race, religion and culture; aggravation of expressions of racism related to Islamophobia and anti-Semitism; a revival of racism in sport; the persistence and at times aggravation of discrimination against castes; racial profiling, and incitement to racial hatred through the Internet. He also paid particular attention to the situation of individual groups such as the Roma/Gypsies/Sinti/Travellers. In 2003, the Special Rapporteur received allegations of racial discrimination and xenophobia concerning Belgium, Egypt, Greece, Slovakia, Sudan and Ukraine. Lastly, the Special Rapporteur has focused his recommendations and conclusions on the following issues: The cultural depth of racism and discrimination, which manifests itself in the form of growing political and intellectual intolerance of the cultural and religious signs, symbols and expressions of communities, groups and individuals;