90
"RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES
IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT
COLLECTIVE DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGES HOLMBÄCK, RODENBOURG, ROSS,
WIARDA AND MAST
have to the Dutch-language schools in the six communes, poses no question
of discrimination since they are only claiming to use the common law
educational system and not, like the French-speaking parents living in the
Dutch part of the country, the advantage of an exceptional system.
It must therefore be concluded that the distinction in treatment attacked is
in no way discriminatory.
III. The applications must, as regards the second limb of the fifth
question, be rejected by the application of the principles
governing the theory of the proportionality, the appreciation of
the factual and legal features and the subsidiary character of the
Court’s mission
In that part of the judgment devoted to the general interpretation adopted
by the Court, it is stated as a principle that Article 14 (art. 14) of the
Convention is violated only when it is clearly established that no
relationship of proportionality exists between the means employed and the
aim sought to be realised. It would not therefore be enough - supposing that
such were the position - to be confronted with a marginal case, to conclude
that there is a violation of human rights in the case of the Applicants. The
differentiation in treatment is not discriminatory and it has not in any way
been established that the relationship of proportionality has been
disregarded. The common law legislation which governs all the communes
in the Dutch-language region applies to French-speaking persons resident in
the Dutch unilingual communes adjacent to the six communes, and in its
reply to the first question the Court stated why this legislation is contrary
neither to Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2), nor to Article 8 (art. 8) of the
Convention, taken in isolation or in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P12, art. 14+8).
The difficulties invoked by the Applicants concern the distance from the
parents’ place of residence of French-language schools which, unlike the
schools in the six communes, are open to French-speaking children in the
Dutch unilingual region.
It is a fact that these difficulties are clearly less for parents who, like the
Applicants, live in the localities belonging to the Dutch unilingual system
adjacent to the communes "with special facilities" of the Brussels
agglomeration, than the difficulties caused to French-speaking parents who,
in Dutch unilingual territory, live further or may live much further from the
nearest French-language school open to their children.
Now, the Court has found that as regards these last-mentioned parents,
"the measures adopted in this matter by the Belgian legislature are not so
disproportionate to the requirements of the public interest which is being