"RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES
IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT
5
- by 10 votes to 2, that the legislation was not incompatible, in the case of the
Applicants, with Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention, considered in isolation or in
conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+8);
- by 9 votes to 3, that the general system of education in the areas which are
unilingual by law was not incompatible with the first sentence of Article 2 of the
Protocol, considered in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the Convention;
- by 11 votes to 1, that the same was true of the "special status" conferred by Section
7 of the Act of 2nd August 1963 on six bilingual communes, of which Kraainem is
one, on the periphery of Brussels;
- by 7 votes to 5, that the Acts of 1963 were incompatible with the first sentence of
Article 2 of the Protocol, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the
Convention, in so far as they result in the total withdrawal of subsidies from
provincial, commune and private schools providing, in the form of non-subsidised
classes and in addition to instruction given in the language prescribed by the language
legislation, complete or partial education in another language; - unanimously, that the
conditions on which children whose parents live outside the Greater Brussels district
may be enrolled in schools in that district (Section 17 of the Act of 30th July 1963)
were not, in the case of the Applicants, incompatible with the first sentence of Article
2 of the Protocol, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the
Convention;
- that the Acts of 1963 were incompatible with the first sentence of Article 2 of the
Protocol, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the Convention, in so
far as they prevent certain children, solely on the basis of their parents’ place of
residence, from attending French-language schools at Louvain (8 votes to 4) and in the
above-mentioned six communes on the periphery of Brussels (7 votes to 5);
- by 8 votes to 4, that the legislation complained of was also incompatible with the
first sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art.
14+P1-2) of the Convention, in so far as it has resulted, since 1932, in a refusal to
homologate certificates relating to secondary schooling not in accordance with the
language requirements."
6. In the course of the written proceedings the following submissions
were made on the merits of the case:
- by the Belgian Government in its memorial of 9th May 1967:
"The Belgian Government submits the following conclusions:
(1) The Belgian legislation attacked in the Applications is incompatible neither with
Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) nor with Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention if those
provisions are considered in isolation.
(2) Nor is it contrary to the first and second sentence of Article 2 of the Protocol or
Article 8 of the Convention even if read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2,
art. 14+8) of the Convention.
(3) Neither the 1963 Acts nor those of 1932 are incompatible with Article 2, first
sentence, of the Protocol, read in conjunction with Article 14 (art. 14+P1-2) of the