A/50/476 English Page 4 I. INTRODUCTION 1. At its fifty-first session, the Commission on Human Rights examined the progress report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (E/CN.4/1994/78) and the addendum regarding his mission to the United States of America from 9 to 22 October 1994 (E/CN.4/1995/78/Add.1). 2. By its resolution 1995/12 of 24 February 1995, the Commission took note of that report and requested the Special Rapporteur to continue to examine, in accordance with his mandate, incidents of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, any form of discrimination against Blacks, Arabs and Muslims, xenophobia, negrophobia, anti-Semitism and related intolerance, as well as governmental measures to overcome them, in order to present a complete report on these matters to the Commission at its fifty-second session and a progress report to the General Assembly at its fiftieth session. 3. The Commission encouraged the Special Rapporteur, in close consultation with Governments, relevant specialized agencies of the United Nations system, other intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to present further recommendations concerning human rights education and to present concrete recommendations on specific measures which could be taken at the national, regional and international levels, with a view to preventing and eradicating problems within the purview of his mandate. 4. Finally, the Commission regretted that, owing to the lack of necessary resources, the Special Rapporteur had encountered difficulties in preparing his previous reports and requested the Secretary-General without further delay to provide him with all the necessary assistance in carrying out his mandate. 5. The General Assembly, in its resolution 49/147 of 23 December 1994, expressed its full support for the work of the Special Rapporteur, requested Member States to provide the Special Rapporteur with the resources he needed to carry out his mandate and requested the Secretary-General without delay to provide all necessary human and financial assistance to enable the Special Rapporteur to submit a report to the General Assembly at its fiftieth session. 6. The present report is thus a response to the requests by the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights. In preparing this document, the Special Rapporteur made use of the relevant portions of the communications received from the Governments of the People’s Republic of China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Norway, Portugal, the Russian Federation and the United States of America. He also made use of documents transmitted by the International Labour Office, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Commonwealth Secretariat. 7. Finally, the Special Rapporteur had access to reliable information communicated to him by non-governmental organizations - Amnesty International, /...