24 "RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT On the question of Article 14 (art. 14) the Belgian Government developed other arguments rather of a subsidiary nature. It considers, as do the Applicants and the Commission, that Article 14 (art. 14) does not prohibit every inequality of treatment in the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms safeguarded. What then is to be understood by a "discrimination" as opposed to a "distinction" or a legitimate "differentiation"? According to the Belgian Government the Court is empowered to decide "what constitutes discrimination", but its power "conflicts to some extent with the functions of the State". The general and specific objects which a Government seeks to achieve, and the means it uses for the purpose, are within its own jurisdiction; "in case of doubt it must be presumed" that these objects and means are "reasonable"; quite exceptional cases excluded, it is enough, for a State to justify its action, to invoke "a legitimate and avowable motive". The European jurisdictions would be acting outside the limits of their attributed powers if they were to review the legitimacy, the equity and the desirability of the actions of States; they would "inevitably" be led "to take up political attitudes in their decisions", a result not "in accordance with the intention of the High Contracting Parties". There would be a veritable "political tutelage" of democratic Parliaments, which are the only judges of the requirements of the national sentiment. The distinction, proposed by the Commission, between "privileges" and "hardships", lacks clarity; "the only correct way of stating the problem" consists, in the present case, in asking whether "by conferring certain privileges solely on education given in the regional language" the Belgian legislation "deprives" education given in some other language "of a right safeguarded by the Convention or Protocol". In its opinion of 24th June 1965, the Commission expressed the view that although Article 14 (art. 14) is not at all applicable to rights and freedoms not guaranteed by the Convention and Protocol, its applicability "is not limited to cases in which there is an accompanying violation of another Article". In the view of the Commission "such a restrictive application" would conflict with the principle of effectiveness established by the case law of the Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Court of Justice, for the discrimination would be limited to the aggravation "of the violation of another provision of the Convention". The Commission is, moreover, of the opinion that such an interpretation would be in ill accord "with the wording of Article 14 (art. 14)": in its opinion the word "secured" implies the placing of "an obligation which is not simply negative" on the Contracting States. Article 14 (art. 14) "is of particular importance in relation to those clauses" which "do not precisely define the rights" which they enshrine, but "leave States a certain margin of appreciation with regard to the fulfilment of their obligation", "authorise restrictions on, or exceptions to the rights guaranteed" or "up to a point leave it to the States to choose the appropriate means to guarantee a right".