"RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT 27 Two of the members who were present at the adoption of the Report of 24th June 1965 do not believe that Article 14 (art. 14) has an autonomous field of application; two others do not accept the distinction established by the majority between "privileges" and "hardships", and a fifth disputes the relevance of "administrative and financial needs". The Commission draws the attention of the Court to these individual opinions. B. Interpretation adopted by the Court 1. The Court, in examining the complaints which have been referred to it, is at the outset confronted with the general question as to the extent to which any of the Articles of the Convention or Protocol may contain provisions touching the rights or freedoms of a child with respect to his education or of a parent with respect to the education of his child, and more especially in the matter of the language of instruction. The Court notes that although certain further Articles (Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention) (art. 9, art. 10) were invoked by the Applicants before the Commission, it is Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 of the Convention (art. 8, art. 14) alone which are dealt with in the arguments and submissions both of the Commission and the Belgian Government. While the provisions of the Convention and Protocol must be read as a whole, the Court considers that it is essentially upon the content and scope of these three Articles that the decision which it has to take turns. 2. The Court will address itself first to Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) because the Contracting States made express provision with reference to the right to education in this Article. 3. By the terms of the first sentence of this Article (P1-2), "no person shall be denied the right to education". In spite of its negative formulation, this provision uses the term "right" and speaks of a "right to education". Likewise the preamble to the Protocol specifies that the object of the Protocol lies in the collective enforcement of "rights and freedoms". There is therefore no doubt that Article 2 (P1-2) does enshrine a right. It remains however to determine the content of this right and the scope of the obligation which is thereby placed upon States. The negative formulation indicates, as is confirmed by the "preparatory work" (especially Docs. CM/WP VI (51) 7, page 4, and AS/JA (3) 13, page 4), that the Contracting Parties do not recognise such a right to education as would require them to establish at their own expense, or to subsidise, education of any particular type or at any particular level. However, it cannot be concluded from this that the State has no positive obligation to ensure respect for such a right as is protected by Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2). As a "right" does exist, it is secured, by virtue of Article 1 (art. 1) of the Convention, to everyone within the jurisdiction of a Contracting State.