E/CN.4/2004/18/Add.1 page 6 Introduction 1. In discharging his mandate pursuant to resolution 2002/39 of 23 April 2002, and by agreement with the Governments concerned, the Special Rapporteur carried out a regional mission to Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago from 14 to 25 July 2003. One of the aims of the mission, against a background of growing awareness at the United Nations of the urgency of the situation in Guyana, was to look into the state of race relations there, as illustrated in part by the serious tension between the Indo- and Afro-Guyanese communities which sparked political violence during the parliamentary and presidential elections between March 2001 and July 2002. The Special Rapporteur felt it would be useful for purposes of comparison, given the similar historical heritage - slavery and colonialism - and demographic composition of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, to use the occasion to visit Trinidad and Tobago also. 2. The Special Rapporteur approached this mission following the dual strategy he has devised to increase the efficacy of his mandate. This strategy, inspired by the spirit and letter of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and geared towards finding lasting, in-depth solutions to racism, seeks not only to broaden and reinforce the legal and political responses to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, but also to promote greater understanding of the underlying causes, the bases, processes and mechanisms - whether ideological, cultural or psychological - whereby the culture and mindset of racism and discrimination perpetuate themselves. The Special Rapporteur is thus developing an approach that should enable de facto multi-ethnic societies to link action to combat racial discrimination with the long-term goal of constructing a genuinely pluralist society that shows respect for the various communities’ specific characteristics, while also trying to promote interaction and unity among them. I. MISSION TO GUYANA 3. In Guyana, the Special Rapporteur met the country’s most senior officials, including the President of the Republic, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, and several of his ministers. He also met representatives of the opposition, including Mr. Robert Corbin, the head of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R), the main opposition party, and leaders of the new party of indigenous Guyanese people, the Guyana Action Party. The Special Rapporteur wished to deepen his understanding of Guyanese society by meeting representatives from civil society, religious communities, intellectual circles and the media. His meetings took place in and around the capital, Georgetown, and in the interior of the country, including in the town of Lethem in the south, on the border with Brazil, where the fact that most of the population are Amerindians gave him a better grasp of Guyana’s ethnic and socio-political diversity, from a different perspective than the Afro-/Indo-Guyanese divide. The visit to Guyana took place in a setting of democratic dialogue: the leaders of the governing party, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and the main opposition party, the PNC/R, had signed a joint communiqué on 6 May 2003, agreeing to work together to find solutions in the interests of the Guyanese people as a whole, on the basis of constructive engagement favouring Guyana’s long-term social, economic and political development. The majority of the individuals, institutions and groups the Special Rapporteur saw, whether in Government or in opposition or civil society, welcomed his visit and were of the opinion that it was particularly well timed to give further impetus to the process of political dialogue, which is a basic prerequisite for any long-term solution to ethnic polarization.