E/CN.4/1996/72 page 10 exclusion, a national identity crisis, ethno-cultural problems, discriminatory practices, particularly in the fields of employment and housing, and a degree of xenophobia in people’s way of thinking. 36. The economic crisis on the one hand, and the identity crisis on the other, are aggravated by the claims of people of French stock to ascendency over naturalized French citizens and immigrants; hence the reference to the theme of national preference, with its xenophobic and even racist content, in political speeches. 37. The wave of xenophobia currently sweeping over France feeds on the attitudes adopted and declarations made for electioneering purposes by politicians, both on the right and on the left. It is not due solely to the far right which makes foreigners the scapegoats, particularly if they are Black, Arab or Muslim. Xenophobia in France is today sustained by the Pasqua Acts, which, it must not be forgotten, are laws of the French Republic. For France’s image, and its moral responsibility, at the global level, in the history of the promotion and defence of human rights, the peremptorily enacted laws on immigration, the right of asylum and the forced repatriation of "illegal" entrants, constitute nothing less than an act of self-repudiation which calls to mind the words of Suetonius: "et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas" ["and in order to live their own life they lose their true reason for existence"]. The Special Rapporteur’s interlocutors acknowledge moreover that the Pasqua Acts are difficult to apply and raise delicate problems of interpretation. Confirmation of this is provided by the paradoxical situation of French children one of whose parents is not of French nationality. The father may be expelled from France if he is deemed to be an illegal alien: families are separated. The procedure for obtaining French nationality now involves a veritable assault course. French nationality may be refused on such surprising grounds as that the applicant is "plump and ugly". There are increasingly frequent cases of this great country, which excels in much publicized humanitarian actions, making it increasingly difficult to obtain an entry visa into France for seriously ill people who demonstrably have the means to pay their hospital bills, meet the cost of their stay and return to their country of origin. Is humanitarian action selective, or is it worth being humane only in the glare of publicity? What has become of human dignity? One is tempted to ask. 38. It would be very helpful if the recommendations of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights on the review of the Pasqua Acts were to be taken into account by the competent legislative and executive authorities. Some people consider that the National Consultative Commission should build on the celebrity it has acquired and go further, in the faithful discharge of its mission, by prevailing on those in power to take urgent measures to rectify and improve the battery of laws on immigration. 39. One of the principal problems to which a solution should be found that is more humane and more in keeping with the humanist ideal that France has taught and disseminated throughout the world and which has been one of the justifications of colonization which has called the people of other continents to "civilization", is the problem of the right of asylum, a right that is linked to the right of immigration which is all too easily characterized as clandestine. It raises the distressing and worrying issue of the holding