100 "RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT INDIVIDUAL OPINION, PARTLY DISSENTING (POINT I OF THE OPERATIVE PROVISIONS OF THE JUDGMENT), OF JUDGE TERJE WOLD as "prior rights of parents to choose the kind of education to be given to their children". And through the whole of the Preparatory Works, in numerous places, the right to education - by all who took part - is mentioned as a right of choice for the parents, which should be secured as a basic fundamental freedom. The Preparatory Works also clearly show that it was not in the mind of anyone that Article 2 (P1-2) should establish a positive claim against the State. On the contrary, the basic intention was to protect the individual against interference by the State. It is this which in my view is the reality to take into consideration when interpreting Article 2 (P1-2). We must not forget that Europe, at the time when the Convention was adopted, had just gone through years of suppression of the freedom of the peoples, where governments used all sorts of means and pressure to nazify the youth, especially through the schools and youth organisations. It was an important aim of the Convention that this should not be repeated and that the freedom of education should be protected. Frequently, throughout the Preparatory Works this point is stressed. A "right of access" to the existing educational institutions of the member States is not dealt with by the Convention and is, within the meaning of the European Convention, not a human right at all. Nobody denies that everyone may have a right of access to the schools and teaching institutions in Belgium and the European countries in accordance with the laws of each country, but this is not a right laid down in the Convention. There is in fact no foundation for the majority’s view that the right to education laid down in Article 2 (P1-2) would be meaningless if it did not imply the right to be educated in the national language. Imposing a negative obligation upon the State, Article 2 (P1-2) is important and has a full meaning. Every human right granted by the Convention must be the same in all the contracting member States. The right to education must have exactly the same content in Belgium as in Norway or in Turkey and all the other States which have ratified the Convention. Within its limited field it is just the aim of the Convention to adopt the same European system. The majority opinion contravenes this basic aim of the Convention, when it is stated that the human right to education "by its very nature calls for regulation by the State, regulation which may vary in time and place according to the needs and resources of the community and of individuals". This shows that the majority view goes outside the scope of the Convention. The human rights granted are absolute rights, which cannot be the object of regulation by the separate States except where this is expressly stated in the Convention and under the conditions the Convention itself has laid down. In regard to the right to education the Convention has no such provision. It would also be a very dangerous road to embark upon if the articles of the Convention were to be interpreted in such a way as to allow the member States to regulate the