E/CN.4/1995/78/Add.1 page 31 B. Action by society at large 108. The United States possesses what must be the densest web of community organizations in the world, which acts as a rampart against racism and racial discrimination in American society. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s left American society with a legacy of numerous religious or secular, ethnic or cross-ethnic organizations that unceasingly combat racism and racial discrimination and strive to bring together the different communities in the United States. Thanks to their vigilance and their readiness to protest, the studies they carry out and their capacity to mobilize public opinion, they succeed in influencing government policy and getting Congress to adopt laws against racism and racial discrimination. At the time of the Special Rapporteur’s mission, the National Council of the Churches of Christ of the United States and the World Council of Churches were mobilizing public opinion through hearings of witnesses and victims of racism, and the Special Rapporteur has been able to make use of the information thus gathered. 109. Organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Democratic Renewal, the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, the American-Arabs Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and several others provide legal aid to the victims of racism and racial discrimination through their teams of lawyers. Others such as the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee perform an acknowledged monitoring function. The Baha’i community in the United States preaches a message of peace and unity, which is reflected in its education projects and petitions to the President of the United States. 110. Action by community associations frequently converges with that of some municipalities. Thus, the Special Rapporteur was able to appreciate the efforts made by the City of Washington to combat racial discrimination in the economic and social sphere and to eliminate police violence towards members of ethnic minorities. The City of New York has a human rights commission to which anyone whose rights are violated may turn. In Atlanta, there is a commission responsible for inter-community relations, which provides a forum for dialogue and acts as an instrument of mediation, and which concerns itself with finding solutions in the spheres of education, housing, trade, employment and justice. V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 111. As he comes to the end of his investigation, the Special Rapporteur believes he can say that racism and racial discrimination persist in American society, even if not as a result of a deliberate policy on the part of the United States Government. 112. The Special Rapporteur found sociological inertia, structural obstacles and individual resistance hindering the emergence of an integrated society based on the equal dignity of the members of the American nation and willing to accept ethnic and cultural pluralism. Vested interests, competing influences and the power struggle between the various political and social components of American society also provide opportunities for residual racism