E/CN.4/2001/66 page 10 9. Due prevention and diligence by law enforcement officials are also often lacking when such groups are under threat or attack from private citizens. Victims of racial assaults by private citizens are often denied access to complaint procedures. Clashes between different racial or ethnic groups have taken place with the acquiescence, or even the condoning, of public authorities. This lack of reaction from public officials further encourages such private violence. 10. In his report to the General Assembly (A/55/290), the Special Rapporteur observed that the overwhelming majority of those subjected to torture and ill-treatment were ordinary common criminal suspects from the lowest strata of society. In a number of countries, racial or ethnic minority groups make up the great majority of these strata. Again, the Special Rapporteur would like to stress that, because of their economic and educational situation, they are deprived of the means to claim and ensure the enforcement of their rights, including their rights to legal representation and to obtain legal remedies, such as compensation. Racial stereotyping also affects the judicial system, so that even in the presence of legal representation, impunity may prevail. 11. In terms of legal provisions encompassing these two notions, the Special Rapporteur wishes to draw the attention of the Commission to article 5 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which provides that “… States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: ... (b) The right to security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government officials or by any individual group or institution.” Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide provides that: “... genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: … (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part ...”. II. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR 12. For the second time since the creation of the mandate, the Special Rapporteur was requested by the General Assembly, in its resolution 54/156, paragraph 29, and by the Commission, in its resolution 2000/43, paragraph 33, to present an interim report to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session on overall trends and developments with regard to his mandate. In November 2000, he accordingly submitted a report (A/55/290) to the Third Committee of the General Assembly under agenda item 116 (a). In this report, the Special Rapporteur addressed the following issues: gender-specific forms of torture; torture and children; torture and human rights defenders; reparation for victims of torture; and torture and poverty. 13. During the period under review the Special Rapporteur undertook two missions. The report on the visit to Azerbaijan (7-15 May) is contained in Addendum 1 to the present report and the report on the visit to Brazil (20 August-12 September) is contained in Addendum 2 to the present report.