E/CN.4/2005/18/Add.6 page 2 Summary From 26 June to 13 July 2004, the Special Rapporteur visited the Central American region. He travelled to Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua at the invitation of the Governments of those countries. This regional mission was prompted by the need for the Special Rapporteur to help to shed light on two particularly significant factors in the problem of racism in the region: (1) the depth of the historical legacy of racism and discrimination, the ideological underpinning of the slave-holding and colonial systems, which has had a deep influence on the structure of societies; (2) the impact of the political violence that has marked the recent history of Central America on communities of indigenous people and people of African descent, which have historically experienced discrimination. These are countries with similar ethnic and demographic features and common historical and political legacies. These countries in transition towards peace-building, social cohesion and consolidation of democracy are of particular interest with respect to the structuring and management of ethnic, racial and cultural pluralism. The Special Rapporteur observed three trends in all three countries that reveal the existence of deeply rooted discrimination: (1) a troubling correlation between poverty-stricken areas and areas inhabited by communities of indigenous people and people of African descent; (2) the marginal involvement of representatives of those communities in power structures the government, parliament and the judiciary - as well as their insignificant presence in decision-making positions in the media; and (3) their treatment in the media as objects of folklore. He also found, to varying degrees in the three countries, a lack of awareness of how extensive and deeply rooted discrimination is, among both the political authorities and the population as a whole. The Special Rapporteur notes, by contrast, statements by civil society actors he spoke with, as well as testimony from members and representatives of all the communities concerned, that the societies in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua remain deeply imbued with racial prejudice and discriminatory practices against indigenous peoples, prejudices inherited from the colonial conquest and the slave-holding system, which, by subjugating these peoples and belittling their identities and cultures on the basis of an openly racist ideology, have effectively marginalized them in a lasting way at the political, social, economic and cultural levels. Despite principled claims of being multicultural, the Hispanic legacy and identity of these countries are highlighted to the detriment of the legacies of indigenous peoples or people of African and indigenous descent, which are reduced to folklore. The rejection of the reality of ethnic pluralism, in political, cultural and social terms, is particularly evident in everyday life through discriminatory acts such as frequent denial of access to public places. Denying people the opportunity to express their identities is one of the most telling forms of discrimination. The inadequacy of public services (education, health and justice in particular) in areas inhabited by these communities and the absence of genuine bilingualism are objective demonstrations of the lack of social and cultural integration of these peoples. Thus, indicators of health, education and housing for these peoples remain lower than for the rest of the population.