UNITY IN DIVERSITY PROTECTION OF LINGUISTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL MINORITIES IN THE BELGIAN FEDERAL STATE

As one of the few countries in the Council of Europe, Belgium has not ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities neither the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Yet minorities are efficiently protected. Firstly, the Constitution guarantees the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination. Secondly, Belgium evolved from a unitary to a federal State. The three (linguistic) Communities are each, on their territory, responsible for cultural affairs (including language protection measures, ... ), education (including the choice of the language of instruction) and personal tinted matters (e. g. health care, welfare policy for certain groups,.). However, mechanisms must be developed within each community for the protection of philosophical and religious minorities or in the area of governance and administration. Thirdly, at the federal level linguistic minorities are double protected; the Council of Ministers is linguistically jointly composed and in the Federal Parliament a guaranteed presence of each language group is constitutionally assured. The Legislative can only adopt certain laws on the use of languages as well as laws concerning the State structure with a qualified majority; for approving other laws a parliamentary language group can temporarily suspend the legislative process. The protection models have always led to consultation and never to a violent conflict.