A/HRC/42/27 7. The Director affirmed that social media and the Internet had been instrumentalized in the pursuit of hatred and xenophobia. She recommended that society look actively at how new media could be a tool to combat hate, how stories of how diversity strengthens societies could be better told and how to rally together to support tolerance and inclusion. Public authorities and elected officials had a crucial role to play in this struggle by speaking out against discrimination and intolerance. 8. Lastly, she urged States and leaders to demonstrate not only political but also moral leadership in vigorously fighting racism, discrimination and xenophobia, to join forces to fight the rise in hate speech before it turned into violence, to take action to prosecute racial violence when it occurred and to redouble efforts in preventive action and step up investment in awareness-raising and education. III. Statements by panellists 9. The panellists stated that respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law were essential to prevent and combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. They also emphasized that the international community needed to redouble efforts to fight racism in all its forms and manifestations. 10. Ms. Rodrigues da Costa noted that nowadays the idea of racial superiority of white over black and indigenous peoples had proven to be false and been rejected by most societies, but it still echoed in the minds of a lot of people. She stated that among the negative effects of structural racism were the lack of access to basic services and justice and the low number of representatives of black and indigenous groups in public spaces and in decision-making. 11. She further noted that although Brazil still faced serious problems of structural racism, significant progress had been made over the previous 20 years, beginning with the recognition that the country suffered from racism and structural racism. In 2003, Brazil had created, within the Federal Government, an institution to elaborate public policies to promote racial equality. The institution also liaised with other ministries or entities of the public administration to ensure a coherent view on the elaboration of public policies. Currently, Brazil, through its Institute of Geography and Statistics undertook social diagnosis through the collection of data disaggregated by gender, ethnic or racial group, age and geographic location. That work was done through a census organized every 10 years and through annual surveys. Institutions such as the Institute for Applied Economic Research analysed all the data and identified critical areas that demanded government attention. She further noted that laws that forbade racial discrimination and offences based on a person’s ethno-racial origin had also been put into practice, as had the Statute on Racial Equality, to guarantee to the afro-Brazilian population the enjoyment of equal opportunities and of their social, economic and cultural rights. 12. Brazil had further adopted legislation on affirmative action that reserved a number of places for people of African descent and indigenous peoples in the higher education system and the public sector. With the increase in racist discourse through Internet networks, the Brazilian police had begun to monitor social networks and also to investigate complaints, based on the anti-discrimination laws. 13. Mr. Engel noted that the problem of incompatibility between democracy and racism was multifaceted and included various different problems, such as combating racial discrimination. It also covered the tensions between democratic values, such as freedom of speech and expression, and the interests of combating hate speech. 14. Mr. Engel emphasized that cultural diversity was seen as a threat to the so-called notion of national culture and the notion of race had been replaced by the notion of culture in the political discourse. He stated that the main objective of modern racism was to reduce the impact of the culture of minorities. That was done, inter alia, through restrictions on immigration and through cultural assimilation of a minority group. Assimilation was being replaced by the word integration. It was clear that voluntary assimilation was not considered to be a demonstration of racism because it was always a choice, but forced 3