E/CN.4/2004/18/Add.1 page 2 Summary The Special Rapporteur carried out a regional mission to Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago from 14 to 25 July 2003. One of the aims of the mission, against a background of growing awareness at the United Nations of the urgency of the situation in Guyana, was to look into the state of race relations there, as illustrated in part by the serious tension between the Indo- and Afro-Guyanese communities which sparked political violence during the parliamentary and presidential elections between March 2001 and July 2002. The Special Rapporteur felt it would be useful for purposes of comparison, given the similar historical heritage - slavery and colonialism - and demographic composition of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, to use the occasion to visit Trinidad and Tobago also. The Special Rapporteur approached this mission following the dual strategy he has devised to increase the efficacy of his mandate. This strategy, inspired by the spirit and letter of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and geared towards finding lasting, in-depth solutions to racism, seeks not only to broaden and reinforce the legal and political responses to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, but also to promote greater understanding of the underlying causes, the bases, processes and mechanisms - whether ideological, cultural or psychological - whereby the culture and mindset of racism and discrimination perpetuate themselves. The Special Rapporteur is thus developing an approach that should enable de facto multi-ethnic societies to link action to combat racial discrimination with the long-term goal of constructing a genuinely pluralist society that shows respect for the various communities’ specific characteristics, while also trying to promote interaction and unity among them. In Guyana, the Special Rapporteur noted the harsh reality of ethnic polarization among Guyanese of African, Hindu and Amerindian descent. This polarization, which is most starkly reflected in the basically ethnic composition of the political parties, is reproduced in the structure of State mechanisms, particularly in the public sector, the army and the police, and has had deep and lasting economic, social and cultural consequences. The various barriers human, psychological, social and cultural - thrown up as a result of this polarization have not merely distorted all aspects and forms of “living together”, but have also perpetuated and reinforced a state of economic and social underdevelopment, to the detriment of the entire society, in a country that possesses extraordinary natural, human and intellectual resources. The Special Rapporteur noted that, despite everything, this polarization, in all communities and at all levels of society, has resulted not in feelings of hatred between communities but rather in a culture of fear and mistrust which pervades all social activity. During his meetings and interviews, he also noted the existence of a sense of belonging at all levels of society. Therefore, at the basic level of the people’s deepest feelings, Guyanese society does nurture the human values necessary for overcoming ethnic polarization and collectively building genuine pluralism, through which a dynamic, creative balance could enable cultural and spiritual differences to be recognized, respected, protected and promoted and universal values arising out of cross-fertilization among communities to be cultivated. But the prerequisite for such a development, in the last analysis, lies in the political will of all of Guyana’s leaders. The story of Guyana is, to a deeply disturbing degree, the story of political exploitation of the race factor by every political leader from every point on the