A/HRC/7/23/Add.2 page 14 specific issues relating to the education of girls of Muslim faith; security issues and the high incidence of rape of women in disadvantaged minority communities in suburbs; and the lack of access to political participation of minority women. 39. The near complete absence of people of colour in the French media is indicative of a wider problem of their “invisibility” within French society in general, to the extent that the appointment of the first black newsreader to a prime-time television news broadcast in 2006 was itself headline news. The lack of a representative voice for minorities in French politics creates a combined effect of both invisibility and silence of France’s minority groups, which additionally feel physically segregated from mainstream French society by public housing policies that consign them to isolated urban suburbs. 40. The independent expert was told of messages emanating from political parties and senior politicians that have been unwelcoming at best and in some instances of a racist and inflammatory nature. After the 2005 riots, the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Sarkozy, remarked that he would “clean the scum off the streets with a high-pressure hose”. This was commonly referred to by community members and has left a legacy of resentment among Muslim communities. The independent expert considers that the messages emanating from the highest officials of the State must be unambiguous in signalling full commitment to promoting non-discrimination, equality and diversity. As a community member in the Marseilles suburbs stated: “The administration is the first to say ‘be careful of discrimination’, but they are the ones creating the discrimination.” 41. Racism within the police service that has become institutionalized was highlighted as an ongoing problem. Community sources described racial profiling in stop-and-search procedures, among many intimidating and humiliating police practices, heavy-handed and aggressive policing, and what they perceive to be an “anti-black culture” of the police which extends to structural issues of recruitment. Some community members spoke of police techniques to make people stay in their neighbourhoods. Many commented that heavy-handed and insensitive policing practices had been the major factor in triggering the urban disturbances of 2005. It was noted that neighbourhood or “proximity” policing techniques designed to build relationships and confidence between local communities and the police had been abolished prior to the disturbances. 42. The effects of discrimination and exclusion have resulted in disproportionately high levels of poverty among visible minorities who are long-term residents or French citizens of immigrant heritage. Community members and NGOs described urban ethnic and religious ghettos as clear concentrations of poverty within French society. While government representatives also acknowledge the problems of poverty in the urban suburbs, the independent expert is concerned that the Government views poverty among minority communities as solely social or economic problems rather than as problems closely related to discrimination against members of minority groups. 43. The independent expert focused on three areas that particularly featured in her consultations as being problematic in regard to discrimination against persons belonging to minorities: housing, education and employment.