A/HRC/7/23/Add.2 page 15 A. Housing 44. The independent expert visited the suburbs of Paris and Marseilles, including Bobigny and La Courneuve in Paris, areas affected by urban upheavals and violence in 2005, and the northern suburbs of Marseilles. Her visits enabled her to consult with local residents and to see for herself housing conditions and local demographics in these areas. Despite the lack of statistical data along ethnic and/or religious lines, visits to the poorest suburbs of Paris reveal an obvious high proportion of “visible” minorities and religious minorities. 45. Consistently, when poor immigrants arrive, those belonging to certain ethnic or religious groups are allocated to the poorest housing in specific neighbourhoods that have become highly ethnicized, resulting in a discriminatory pattern of de facto segregation. Housing in these suburbs is often dilapidated and poorly maintained. There are chiefly towering high-rise apartment blocks lined up in neighbourhoods devoid of any of the beauty or verve characteristic of the streets of central Paris. Teenage boys loiter on street corners; not in school and not at work. These are poor neighbourhoods, clearly economically depressed and spiritually depressing. Community members commonly noted that quality public housing in central locations or higher income areas is rarely allocated to those of immigrant heritage. 46. By all accounts, the level of discrimination in the private housing market also considerably limits housing options for visible minorities. Discrimination persists in spite of legislation prohibiting bias in residential leases.11 47. Government officials acknowledged areas of some 70 per cent “foreign” residents and the creation of what has become recognized as the “ghetto” phenomenon, officially acknowledged only in recent years. Community representatives reflected that the urban blight of these areas has been attributed to ethnic minorities themselves who are blamed for their own conditions, in a process of stigmatization which extends to other spheres of life. Many residents said that their very address in the “sensitive suburbs” provides further grounds for discrimination. When employers receive applications indicating that the job-seeker lives in a ghetto, they reject it because it means the applicant is a minority. One community member stated: “When they read La Courneuve on your application, it goes in the bin.” 48. Physically isolated housing areas, including suburbs such as Clichy-sous-Bois, were noted as being seriously deprived in the development of public transport, resulting in major problems of isolation. Clichy-sous-Bois is only 10 km distant but reportedly more than 1.5 hours from central Paris by public transport. This places major labour markets, such as central Paris, 11 The Government states in its report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination dated 15 March 2004 that the Act of 17 January 2002 concerning social modernization amended article 1, paragraph 2, of the Act of 6 July 1989 on housing leases. This explicitly prohibits refusal to rent housing for reasons related to the tenant’s origins, name, physical appearance, habits, sexual orientation, beliefs, race or nationality. The Act establishes that the burden of proof that denial was justified lies with the landlord.