E/CN.4/2006/16/Add.3 page 4 Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance visited Brazil from 17 to 26 October 2005. He travelled to Brasilia, Salvador de Bahia, Recife, Pesqueira, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. He assessed the factors of discrimination that affect the population of African descent, indigenous peoples and foreigners, including migrant workers, refugees and asylum-seekers. In this context, he met with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a number of Ministers and other representatives of the Government at both the national and local levels, the President of the Senate and members of the Parliament, members of the Supreme Court and of the judiciary, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), media representatives, members of various religions, communities concerned and United Nations officials. 2. The Special Rapporteur carried out his visit in very good conditions, thanks to the cooperation and excellent logistics support of the Brazilian authorities. The Special Rapporteur also thanks the office of the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations system in Brazil for its outstanding support, NGOs and members of the communities with which he met for their precious cooperation. I. GENERAL BACKGROUND A. Ethnic and demographic situation 3. Brazil has a total population of 169.59 million. The Afro-descendant population comprises 46.2 per cent of the population. The indigenous population, the Indians, estimated at around 734,127,1 or 0.4 per cent of the population are composed of 220 different groups, speak 280 languages and are spread in almost all regions of Brazil, but the majority of them live in the Amazon area. B. Historical context 4. The Portuguese arrived in the Brazilian territory in 1500, and found an indigenous population. Since then, this indigenous population has been decimated by centuries of violence, and then by epidemics and diseases caught from the European invader. Brazilian colonial history is characterized by the export of wood, sugar cane, gold and diamonds, which made intense use of the labour of African slaves, brought over by the Portuguese for over three centuries. Brazil received 40 per cent of the estimated tens of millions of enslaved Africans brought by Europeans to the northern hemisphere, the Americas and the Caribbean. Through many episodes of revolt and resistance to slavery, groups of enslaved Africans escaped, creating organized black communities called “quilombos”. 5. Slavery was abolished in 1888. The racial miscegenation that followed between Whites, Blacks and Indians, determined the ethnical and cultural map of Brazil. Brazil became independent in 1822. The republic was proclaimed in 1889 and a federative and decentralized system was adopted. Racism and racial discrimination, ideological pillars of the slave system and colonization, profoundly affected the structure of the Brazilian society. Consequently at the end of the nineteenth century, with two thirds of the population of black African descent, a