A/HRC/7/23/Add.2 page 24 85. Following consultations with the High Commissioner for Active Solidarity Against Poverty in France, the independent expert notes that policy initiatives designed to address the needs of the poor as an aggregate group rather than targeting the specific nature of the obstacles faced by minority groups will fail to create sustainable solutions to their poverty, highlighting the recommendations of the 2007 report Minorities, Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals.21 Discrimination in employment 86. The public sector must lead by example in promoting and ensuring equality, non-discrimination and diversity, in order to send a clear message to all sectors of society. The Government should undertake more aggressive strategies to dramatically increase the number of people with immigrant heritage in the public service, particularly the police, civil service and the judiciary, in order better to reflect the broad diversity within French citizenry. These efforts should be evaluated on the basis of results or outcomes, using statistical data disaggregated to reveal the number of visible minorities who have been newly employed and their advancement. In the private sector, anonymous employment applications should be encouraged. Discrimination in housing 87. The independent expert welcomes proposed initiatives to improve housing and living conditions in French suburbs. However, she considers that substantial investment in urban renewal should be just one component of a much wider policy package, which includes employment and education in the broader context of dedicated anti-discrimination initiatives. She emphasizes that priority should be given to ensuring that new or renovated housing is first offered to long-term residents of such suburbs. 88. When communes fail to meet the regulations regarding the availability of a specified percentage of social housing that must be allocated to poor families, they should be severely penalized to the limit specified in the law. The Government should establish effective means to monitor compliance with the laws in this regard. 89. Furthermore, the severe penalties currently foreseen in law should be imposed on municipalities that violate laws adopted to implement the rights of individuals belonging to Gypsy/Traveller communities. No municipality should be allowed to disregard the law with impunity. Discrimination in education 90. The Government should evaluate its current programmes that focus on under-achieving schools against specific studies on the educational obstacles faced by 21 A/HRC/4/9, paras. 104 and 109.