tion at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess yesterday, on the first day of their two-day conference on religious freedom.

Ms. Smith welcomed conference delegates and said she was delighted that they chose "our jewel in the Atlantic as the host site for your illustrious gathering''. Ms Smith said that the fair and equitable society that is being constructed in Bermuda has not come about by chance.

She said: "Like the rest of this world, this country has had to battle the scourge of racial discrimination. In Bermuda, segregation was only officially abolished in 1968. More recently, the Commission for Unity and Racial equality (CURE) was conceived and established in 1994, because of continuing frictions and inequities based on race and ethnicity.'' She continued: "The function of CURE is to promote equality of opportunity, good relations between persons of different racial discrimination and institutional racial discrimination.'' Ms Smith said that the primary purpose of CURE is to help dismantle the barriers that stand in the way of an open society, free from any racial discrimination.

Ms Smith also said that the struggle to create racial equality before the law has largely been won, but the struggle to create economic equality and equality of opportunity continued.

"It is a struggle in which this Government is actively engaged,'' said Ms Smith, adding that it was a struggle they were determined to win.

Ms Smith said that while the discrimination experience in Bermuda has been primarily racial rather than religious, the pain injustices were similar.

Ms Smith said that in tandem with our individual efforts, we also needed to promote concerted action at the national and international level. She said that Bermuda was committed to the principle of religious tolerance, underpinned by the Constitution. Ms Smith said that this year was an auspicious one for the conference as it marked the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations declaration on the elimination of all forms of intolerance and discrimination.

Also attending the conference is United Nations ambassador Joseph Verner Reed, who runs the staff management co-ordination committee in New York.