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    1. The Acts of 1932 and 1963 do not, in the first place, comply with the two sentences of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2). The Belgian State denies the children of the Applicants a complete education in their maternal language. This refusal is made even more rigid since the Act of 30th July 1963 has, in spite of the increase in the French-speaking population, brought about the progressive abolition of transmutation classes and special language classes which in the view of the Applicants constituted "a lesser evil". The parents' linguistic aspirations are moreover disregarded; primary education being compulsory, many of the Applicants are obliged, in practice, to send their children to schools where the teaching is given in Dutch. Admittedly, the legislation under attack does not prohibit children from pursuing their studies in French but the loopholes open to them are utopian and illusory. It is beyond the power of the Applicants to have their children taught at home. As for sending them to Brussels, Wallonia or abroad, there are material and moral obstacles to this solution which are often insuperable. Lastly, the establishment of private French-language schools in Flanders likewise offers only a rather theoretical remedy by reason of the high costs resulting from the absence of subsidies.
    2. The complaints founded on Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention are essentially based on the same facts. The Belgian legislation on the use of languages threatens the children's intellectual and emotional development, prevents the head of the family from deciding in what language his children shall be taught, and interferes with the unity of the family by making the Applicants send their children either to local schools where teaching is conducted in Dutch, "instruments of forced depersonalisation", or to schools far from their homes. The inconveniences of "scholastic emigration", although not dictated by the Act, are nevertheless a direct consequence of it. The Applicants and their children are thus victims of various acts of interference in their private and family life.
    3. Finally the Acts in issue involve a series of discriminations contrary to Article 14 (art. 14) of the Convention which are founded, inter alia, on the language and financial assets of parents. Thus French-speaking children in Flanders are denied a public or subsidised education in their mother tongue while Flemish-speaking children do have such an education there. "Scholastic emigration" for its part redresses certain inequalities only to replace them by others: extra expense, dangers inherent in public transport, the rupture of the family, etc. This is not a question of "legitimate differentiations" but of "discriminations" and what is more, of "active" as opposed to "static" discriminations. The "parallelism" established by the law between the two main regions of the country is "more apparent than real"; moreover, it cannot redress the discriminations committed, in Flanders as well as in Wallonia, to the detriment of those speaking a different language, for the Convention proclaims "equality between men and not between inorganic communities". Admittedly the "Flemish movement" originally fought "for the promotion of the Flemish man", which could perhaps possibly explain certain discriminatory measures of a temporary character: however it is today still "in full career" and is being transformed into "an instrument of authoritarian imperialism" aiming at binding the individual to the soil. Indeed, the present purpose of the legislation consists in "assimilating part of the population by compulsion" and especially in "liquidating the French-speaking minorities" in Flanders by obliging their members to become "Flemicised" or to "move away". The incontrovertible "abuses" of "the last century" were remedied a "long time ago" and in no way justify "the opposite abuse" introduced "by the 1932 legislation and markedly aggravated by that of 1963". Under the pretence of "safeguarding national unity", "the country has been divided" thus producing, despite the official intentions, a "revival of the separatist and federalist tendencies". The Applicants from Alsemberg, Beersel, Kraainem and Louvain also attack the suppression of the linguistic part of the population census (Act of 24th July 1961 and Royal Decree of 3rd November 1961).
      1. 2. Arguments presented before the Court by the Belgian Government and by the Commission
    4. Before the Commission, the Belgian Government held that the laws on the use of languages in education in the unilingual regions violate none of the three Articles (art. 8, art. 14, P1-2) invoked by the Applicants. While its principal argument was that the Articles were totally inapplicable (cf. supra), it presented several subsidiary arguments.
      Concerning Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention, the Belgian Government in substance observed that the inconveniences resulting from the system in dispute had been over-estimated by the Applicants. The interests involved are those of "a small minority of the Belgian people". Furthermore there is "nothing catastrophic" in the possible sending of a French-speaking pupil to a Dutch-language school. He will thus have the opportunity of becoming "perfectly bilingual"; the best solution of the linguistic problem in Belgium lies in bilingualism. Besides, there exist in Flanders private schools where education is conducted in French; it is true that they enjoy "fewer advantages" and in particular they do not receive subsidies but the cost falling upon parents is in no way ruinous, the more so in that the Applicants are said to be comfortably off financially. For the same reasons, the expenses inherent in "scholastic emigration" are "not in the least prohibitive"; the distances to be covered do not exceed a few kilometres or dozens of kilometres and the exceptional frequency of the Belgian railway system allows journeys to be accomplished quickly.
      The differential treatment of which the Applicants complain does not in any way amount to discrimination contrary to Article 14 (art. 14) of the Convention. The legislation which has been criticised ensures "a strict parallelism between the regulations for the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking areas". Furthermore, it was passed by very large majorities of chambers elected by universal suffrage. In spite of some "inevitable imperfections", it represents a democratic compromise between "values of liberty and social values". The Belgian Parliament in no way seeks the "liquidation" of French-speaking minorities in Flanders. In reality it succeeded in its attempt to exorcise "the grave national crises" caused by "Flemish separatism" (1932 Acts) and Flemish and Walloon federalism (Act of 24th July 1961 and 1963 Acts), to rehabilitate "Flemish language and Flemish culture" by developing an "intelligentsia with a good knowledge of Dutch", able to play a formative rôle and, in a more general sense, to give to the country a stable structure based mainly on two large homogeneous regions and a bilingual capital. More especially the Act of 24th July 1961, which suppressed the linguistic part of the population census - the accuracy of which gave rise to discussion - aimed at avoiding the hurling of the two communities "periodically into a confrontation so bitter as to be an undoubted political danger". Such aims are in no way arbitrary or discriminatory. Indeed the whole of the Belgian language legislation may be analysed as a "refusal to discriminate".
      The Belgian Government returned to some of those arguments before the Court but without pressing them strongly; it observed that its thesis coincided for the most part, on the question under consideration, with the opinion of the Commission to which it expressly referred.
    5. The Commission is of the view that the laws on the use of languages in education in the unilingual regions do not conflict with the requirements of the Convention and Protocol; before the Court it confirmed the opinion expressed by the majority on this point in the Report.
      The absence of any violation of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) follows, in the view of the Commission (cf. supra), from the fact that the first sentence of this provision obliges States neither to establish nor to subsidise any teaching whatsoever (seven votes against five) and that the second does not safeguard respect for the cultural or linguistic preferences of parents (unanimity). The Commission recalls however that in the opinion of five of its members, the first sentence of Article 2 (P1-2) gives rise to duties to take positive steps. Two of these members nevertheless arrive at the same conclusion as the majority; for the other three, however, "the refusal (...) to organise or subsidise French education at the compulsory primary level in the Flemish areas cannot be reconciled with Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2)".
      The laws on the use of languages in education in the unilingual regions likewise do not disregard Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention. Certainly it is possible to imagine that they affect the "private and family life" of the Applicants, causing it "grave and unjustified disturbances" (cf. supra). The question arises however only in relation to primary education, which is the only compulsory education in Belgium. Some of the various solutions open to the Applicants, namely having their children taught at home, sending them to school abroad, or sending them to a private school in Flanders providing education in French, are out of the question for "the immense majority of heads of families" by reason of their "high cost". There remain therefore recourse to "scholastic emigration", and sending the children to a Dutch-language school. Scholastic emigration - daily "commuting" or boarding out - presents "very serious hardships", but these hardships are "not dictated by the Act itself", "otherwise they would represent a violation of Article 8 (art. 8)": they result from the "wishes of the parents" who are able to "avoid them by enrolling their children in local Flemish-speaking establishments". "The need to send children to a Flemish school" does not constitute "an interference in private or family life". Although the abolition of transmutation classes and special language classes (Act of 30th July 1963) seems "regrettable" in its view, the Commission thinks that "French-speaking parents will generally have the opportunity to react in their homes against the 'depersonalisation' or 'flemicisation' of their children", as the pupils "will usually after a short transitional period, be able to follow with profit the instruction they receive in Dutch" and the majority of parents "will be able to supervise their children's education": "it is difficult to imagine that people living permanently in the region will be totally ignorant of its language" which is "one of the national languages of Belgium". It may no doubt happen that "children may encounter serious difficulty in learning Dutch and that their parents may be totally ignorant of the language", but the Applicants have not cited "any case of this kind". Two members of the Commission are of the opinion that "the legislation in dispute" has "effects contrary to Article 8 (art. 8)", but "the Commission has not sufficient information to be able to judge in concreto whether the Applicants, or some of them at least, are victims of these effects"; the Commission draws the attention of the Court to their dissenting opinions.
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