E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.3 page 49 By 20 October 1994, 32 remand centres and 10 justice agencies had been set up in 12 departments that have priority where urban policy is concerned. Working out of premises provided by the municipal authorities, these structures make it possible for the public right of action to be exercised in a decentralized and diversified way in respect of petty crime; established criminal law procedures for dealing with insults can thus be brought into play promptly. These structures also make it easier to re-establish law and order and set up mediation on criminal matters by neutral third parties. These procedures are particularly well suited to settling neighbourhood conflicts of a xenophobic or even a racist nature. In 1993, such a measure was taken in 22,000 criminal cases. The Ministry of Justice subsidizes a network of 155 associations for assistance to the victims of criminal offences and encourages their establishment in problem districts. III. A. MANIFESTATIONS OF RACISM PUNISHED BY THE COURTS Manifestations of racism punished by civil courts Manifestations of racism and xenophobia are not confined to the criminal courts. The civil courts sometimes hear cases which involve action to combat racism. Two recent cases warrant particular attention. In its mail order catalogue, a company headed by the president of a small allegedly pro-Nazi group was offering a range of German National Socialist Party, SS, Waffen-SS, Celtic, nationalist, Bonapartist or esoteric-style badges, pins, armbands, belt-buckles, signet rings, busts of Hitler, knives and caps, as well as a subscription voucher for the soon-to-be published book by the late Léon Degrelle entitled “Hitler pour mille ans”. On 11 July, by an order based on article 809, paragraph 1, of the new Code of Civil Procedure, the interim relief judge of the Paris High Court ordered the mail order company to stop distributing its catalogue unless it deleted the reference to a book and badges “with Nazi overtones”. The interim relief judge based his decision on the fact that the mail order system in question was an incitement constituting imminent harm, “for an immediate threat necessarily exists when the injurious act is imminent, as in the case in question (...) so that, if the company has not already undertaken to sell the objects listed in the catalogue in this way, it is perfectly at liberty to distribute or display the catalogue at any time in public places; moreover, to put these objects up for sale may also immediately lead to their use, which is tantamount to serving as a vehicle for nostalgic reminiscing about nazism, with its indissoluble links to the notion of racism”. This decision was appealed by the defendant (No. 94-17 A15). On 7 July 1994, because of the distribution of this catalogue, the Government Procurator of the Meaux High Court ordered examination proceedings to be instituted against persons unnamed on charges of “incitement, as a result of the distribution of documents, printed matter, drawings or emblems, to discrimination against or hatred of persons on the grounds of their membership or non-membership of a particular ethnic group, race or nation”.