E/CN.4/2006/16/Add.3 page 10 26. Concerning discrimination, the FUNAI president stated that Indians may feel discriminated against in the South, where they may be seen as weird, but in the rest of the country they are well accepted and recognized as part of the nation. The judiciary 27. According to Vice-President of the Federal Supreme Court, Ellen Gracie Northfleet, and Joaquim Barbosa, the first Afro-Brazilian judge of the Federal Supreme Court, judges need to become aware of their prejudices: measures should be taken, mainly through training, to avoid such prejudices influencing their decisions. Judges already receive similar training in gender discrimination. The Supreme Court does not have many opportunities to debate questions of racial discrimination, since reaching this level is expensive for most cases. However, in the verdict on a recent case involving an anti-Semitic publication, the Court took a clear stance against racial discrimination, stating that freedom of expression does not include the dissemination of discriminatory messages. The Court will soon have a new opportunity to examine this issue in an appeal relating to the unconstitutionality of quotas. The two judges praised the important work done by the Labour Public Prosecutor concerning collective actions. 28. The judges of the Tribunal of Justice of the State of Pernambuco indicated that discrimination is not racial but socio-economical in Brazil. There is no racism based on ethnic diversity, people live together harmoniously and there has been no case of conviction for racism in the tribunal. They indicated that it is rare to see a Black or Indian judge, but not because of racism. The tribunal is now working on the recognition of marriage under the Condomblé African religion. The Office of the Public Prosecutor 29. The Office of the Public Prosecutor is an independent entity in Brazil. It is entrusted with the promotion of justice, but also with the protection of the democratic system. The federal public prosecution office for civil and criminal affairs indicated that the legal system is good yet insufficient. Most worryingly, the implementation of the law is difficult since the idea that discrimination is economic and not racial prevails in public institutions. An experimental project to fight against institutional racism is being launched by SEPPIR, the Department for International Development, UNDP, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the public prosecutors of the States of Bahia and Pernambuco. The federal public prosecutor is also launching a programme to identify institutional racism within its office. As a matter of fact, there are few black prosecutors in the country. 30. The labour public prosecution office is doing a very interesting job in the field of racial discrimination in employment. Based on the fact that the numerous cases of racially motivated refusal of recruitment are difficult to prove (in the history of the labour tribunal, there have been only five cases of convictions for racism), the office launched a project to sensitize the five largest private banks on this issue. An assessment study showed that while black people represent 50 per cent of Brazil’s active population, these banks employ 43.7 per cent white women, 37.7 per cent white men, 10.6 per cent black men and 8.1 per cent black women. While