"RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES
IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT
53
D. As to the fourth question
20. The fourth question concerns the issue of whether or not in the case
of the Applicants, there is a violation of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and
Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention, or of any of those
Articles,
"with regard to the conditions on which children whose parents reside outside the
Greater Brussels district may be enrolled in the schools of that district (Section 17 of
the Act of 30th July 1963)".
1. The Facts
21. The second, third, fourth and fifth paragraphs of Section 17 of the
Act of 30th July 1963 provide that:
"In all cases in which the child’s language of instruction is determined by his
maternal or usual language, the head of the school may register the child for a
particular system only on production of one of the following:
(a) a certificate issued by the head of the school which the pupil has just left,
certifying that his previous schooling has been through that language;
(b) a language declaration by the head of the child’s family, and approved by the
language inspectorate in all cases where the inspectorate has no doubts as to the
correctness of such declaration;
(c) a decision by the Commission or Board referred to in Section 18.
Where a child is registered at a nursery school for the first time, the head of the
school may, however, admit him on production of a language declaration. The latter
must within one month be forwarded to the language inspectorate for verification.
In the case of pupils who enrol in a school in the Greater Brussels district and whose
parents reside outside that district, the language of instruction shall, in the absence of
any declaration to the contrary made by the head of the family and approved by the
language inspectorate, be the language of the region in which the parents are resident.
The King shall lay down standard forms for the certificate and declaration which
shall comprise any information likely to facilitate the verification of their correctness."
A Royal Decree was issued on 30 November 1966 which implemented
this last paragraph; two other Royal Decrees of the same date stipulated the
status and rules governing the functioning of the language inspectorate as
provided for by Section 18 of the Act of 30th July 1963.
2.
Arguments presented by the Applicants before or through the
Commission
22. According to the Applicants, these provisions are incompatible with
Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the