E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.3 page 13 employment, they have become more timid in their support of immigrant workers because of competition between such workers and French nationals. "Trade unionists in companies are themselves going along with the general tendency to downplay racism. Those who are aware of what is happening and want to do something about it admit that they are afraid that the staff as a whole may 16 not always follow their lead". The major unions such as CGT, CFDT and Force ouvrière are on record as opposing racism and racial discrimination in hiring, but this does not mean that they have the full support of their members. IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 45. To summarize, the Special Rapporteur notes that France is being swept by a wave of xenophobia and racism that is extremely damaging to its image as "the country 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 reasons for existence"). With the consequences of colonization and the question of Islam, the second religion in France, the country is confronted with a true crisis of society and civilization. 46. The Special Rapporteur therefore considers that 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. 47. The Special Rapporteur would also like to recall the specific recommendations that he made in paragraph 45 of his general report (E/CN.4/1996/72): (i) (ii) (iii) 16 To revise the Pasqua Acts to make them more humane and more in keeping with the French ideal of human rights and with international conventions on the rights of the individual; To be more generous in granting entry visas for people from the South, in particular for asylum-seekers and for people wishing to have medical treatment in France and who are able to afford it; To expedite the procedure for examining the files of persons detained in holding centres and to bring about an improvement in living conditions there since even an ordinary prisoner has a right to human dignity; to make the conditions of expulsion less degrading for "illegal" entrants; Tripier, de Rudder and Vourc'h, op. cit ., p. 21.