E/CN.4/2001/21 page 34 100. After considering the arguments of the parties and on the basis of the evidence presented, the Court decided: “(…) to agree in part to the enforcement proceedings, and therefore to order the Ombudsman, within 10 days, to contact … the Ministry of Communications, either directly or through an official delegated to that effect, to urge the Ministry to speed up its inquiries in order to complete them within the delays prescribed by law in response to the complaints lodged against the station Candela FM Estéreo and against the journalist Iván Mejía Alvarez, and to keep informed of the outcome of the inquiry …” 101. Another incident recently aroused the indignation of representatives of the black communities; this was a study carried out as part of the study programme for the Master’s Degree in sociology at del Valle University. According to the complaint lodged by Hector Enrique García, an electronic engineering student, against the principals of the establishment, in a study carried out by students for their Master’s Degree in sociology aimed at determining factors of violence in certain neighbourhoods of the town of Cali, an option with racist connotations had been added in a list of replies as follows: “(…) Interviewer: Do you think that violence in the neigbourhood is due to the presence of certain types of people or groups, such as the following: Drug traffickers Prostitutes Transvestites Beggars Gangs Policemen Blacks” According to the author of the complaint, the use of the option “Blacks” “… has the effect, imperceptibly and perniciously, of equating a physiological trait with a social phenomenon (violence); this attitude flouts all the historic and scientific evidence, which demonstrated in the last century that the physiological characteristics of human beings are completely unrelated to social behaviour (and is tantamount to ignoring sociology altogether as a science), bearing in mind that such attitudes have lead to the deaths of at least some 30 million human beings …”. (b) Comments on legal, administrative, judicial or other measures adopted recently to combat racism, xenophobia and related intolerance 102. It should be pointed out that the 1991 Constitution brought about considerable changes in the lives of Colombians, while it altered the structure of the State and introduced a series of rules of considerable importance for combating racism in all its forms. 103. Among the basic legal principles underlying those changes, it is worth mentioning article 7, which recognizes the ethnic and cultural diversity of the nation, and article 13 of the Constitution, which is worded as follows:

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