A/HRC/29/46 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 20 April 2015 Original: English Human Rights Council Twenty-ninth session Agenda item 9 Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, follow-up to and implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Mutuma Ruteere Summary Racial and ethnic profiling, defined as a reliance by law enforcement, security and border control personnel on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin as a basis for subjecting persons to detailed searches, identity checks and investigations, or for determining whether an individual is engaged in criminal activity, has been a persistent and pervasive issue in law enforcement, and its use has often arisen in connection with policies on national security and immigration. Racial and ethnic profiling often exacerbates discrimination already suffered as a result of ethnic origin or minority status and remains a serious challenge to realization of the rights of various racial, ethnic and religious groups across the world. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur examines the contexts that have led to the use of racial and ethnic profiling and provides an overview of the different manifestations by law enforcement agencies of the phenomenon. He discusses the legal, policy and regulatory frameworks prohibiting racial and ethnic profiling, and the policies and laws adopted at the international, regional and national levels, and then presents different examples of good practices that have been initiated to counter and eliminate the use of racial and ethnic profiling. GE.15-08001 (E) 