minority entitled to their language and culture being respected, and entitled to officially and publicly practice them, potentially with public subsidies… A the local level however, in numerous towns, especially those close to Brussels or the linguistic border, French speakers nominate candidates to elections, are elected representatives and in some cases even gain the majority vote… But this majority is denied and persecuted… Their Mayors are not recognised or even not officially named, except where they commit to only using the Dutch language. Also, there were 5 French speaking elected members of the Flemish Brabant Provincial Council which certainly proves that a large presence of French voters exists in the Flanders area! The Flemish majority does not however draw any reasonable conclusions regarding the respect owed to the language and culture of its citizens… At the regional level, it is worth noting the obvious under-representation of French speakers in Flanders who only have one representative out of 124 in the Flemish Parliament, despite making up 5% of the population. Conversely, the Flemish minority in Brussels is significantly over-represented in the Brussels Parliament… thanks to a legally guaranteed presence (17 seats out of 89) regardless of the number of votes cast, which amounts to almost 20% of seats despite the fact that in the Brussels Region the number of Flemish inhabitants is less than 10%! Therefore, the first form of violence occurring in Belgium (in Flanders) against French speakers, is an institutional form of violence exercised by the Flemish political majority diktat over the Belgian parliament and also inevitably, the Flemish Parliament. This violence is shown through inaction, denial, and the refusal to officially recognise the existence and the rights of the French speaking minority in Flanders. This minority does exist however: there are at least 300,000 French speaking Belgian citizens in Flanders… This violence mainly ensues from an unjust law from 1962 that established Belgian regions as officially unilingual, except some minor exceptions for certain municipalities near the linguistic border or the Brussels-Capital region, called municipalities “with facilities”, but where continuous Flemish political pressure aims at reducing these facilities and ultimately removing them. Flemish political parties refuse to open their eyes and hearts to UN contemporary rules regarding the protection of national minorities. However, “linguistic territoriality” as in the 1962 law, imposed by Flemish parties without sufficient exceptions, are in direct breach of the democratic principles of the UN, especially the necessary respect for linguistic minority rights. This law exerts unacceptable pressure on French speakers in Flanders and serious discrimination between citizens of the same State. Georges CLERFAYT, ADHUM Representative, Doctor of Law, Degrees in Political Science (International Relations) and Economic Sciences. Former Lecturer at Namur University. Honorary Federal MP (1971-2003) Former member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (1996-2003) Honorary city councillor of Rhode Saint Genèse.