A/HRC/7/23/Add.2 page 16 effectively out of reach for those living in such areas. A community member in La Courneuve stated: “People from here don’t go to the centre of Paris. Most of the people here are hostages to their neighbourhood. It is a housing ghetto, but also a mental ghetto.” 49. NGO representatives and community members in both Paris and Marseilles described low quality, poorly maintained and unsanitary housing. Some commented that inadequate conditions and environment, combined with problems of discrimination and unemployment, contribute to a “climate of despair” and a spiral of urban decay conducive to such problems as drug dealing and violent crime, including a high incidence of rape of young women. 50. A government representative in the suburb of Bobigny in Paris acknowledged that: “We think that there is a link between what happened [2005 urban violence] and a failure of urban policy.” Policy debates tacitly recognize, while failing to analyse, the reality of ethnic ghettos. NGOs noted that only since 2000 has the problem begun to appear on the political agendas of the Government and other major parties, and that it has been given added impetus by the 2005 urban upheavals. During her visit to La Courneuve, the independent expert witnessed redevelopment schemes under way that focused on renovating existing tower blocks of better quality and demolishing others in favour of lower-level developments with communal gardens and improved leisure facilities. 51. Conflicting opinions were expressed regarding solutions to the problem of ghettoization. Some propose the break-up of the ghettos through policies of relocation and urban redevelopment with the express purpose of dispersing minorities throughout French neighbourhoods. They recognize that this approach would require proactive measures to decrease negative attitudes among some ancestral French toward those of immigrant origin. Others believe that solutions lie in investing to improve such areas; their infrastructure, access to services and employment options. 52. Under French law,12 all communes are required to have a certain percentage of low-cost housing. Community sources complained that rich communes ignore the law and would rather pay fines for non-compliance than live with poor minorities. Some suburban residents noted that accusations of “communitarianism” also stem from ethnic concentrations and misinformed perceptions of voluntary isolationism from wider French society. As one community member commented: “We want to integrate but we are not allowed to. It is very hard for example to get finance from a bank because of our background, name or colour. Then when we are forced to take initiatives within our communities we are accused of ‘communitarianism’.” 53. The Urban Policy Minister, Ms. Fadela Amara, commented on planned activities and substantial funding for the National Urban Renewal Agency (ANRU) aimed at upgrading social housing through 2012. The Minister noted that this would be with the express objective of 12 Law No. 2000-1208 of 13 December 2000 relating to solidarity and urban renewal states in article 55 that all towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants have to make available 20 per cent of social housing.