Petition by French-speaking citizens living in municipalities in the Brussels periphery (in the Flemish Region) on access to medical care using their own language

Letter from Mr Eric Libert, President of the human rights support committee of the Brussels periphery
to Mr Peter Schieder, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Petition by French-speaking citizens living in municipalities in the Brussels periphery (in the Flemish Region) on access to medical care using their own language

It is my honour, as a member of the Belgian federal parliament and President of the human rights support committee of the Brussels periphery, to submit a petition in accordance with Rule 62 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Because of the intransigent position adopted by its Dutch-speaking parties, Belgium is unable to ratify and implement the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, despite Resolution 1301 (2002) of the Parliamentary Assembly.

French-speaking citizens are subject to daily discrimination in the Flemish Region, particularly regarding health.

Since the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee will shortly be considering a complaint from Dutch-speaking citizens alleging discrimination in health, I consider it highly desirable for our complaint to be joined to it.

We the undersigned, French-speaking Belgian citizens living in the Flemish Region, urgently draw the attention of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly to the following.

The right to health of more than 120 000 Belgian citizens living in municipalities in the Brussels periphery, whether or not with so-called language facilities, is being seriously compromised by the existing legislation and intolerant attitude of the authorities of, respectively, the Flemish Region and the Flemish province of Brabant.

The first example concerns the existing emergency arrangements for the French-speaking population. They can only be served by ambulances and mono-lingual Dutch-speaking staff of the Flemish Region and in emergencies can only be addressed in Dutch in hospitals of the Dutch-speaking region.

The second example concerns the free cancer screening service run by the Flemish province of Brabant, which by refusing to accept the use of French indirectly excludes French-speaking women from the scope of this service.

We have also been informed that Dutch-speaking Belgian citizens have addressed a petition to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, based on their right to health, claiming health care provision using the Dutch language, particularly for emergency services, in public hospitals in the bilingual region of Brussels.

Following a preliminary examination by the Latvian member of parliament, Mr Boris Cilevics, the Bureau has apparently decided that the complaint is well founded and should be considered by the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee.

We believe that to ensure that justice is applied fairly to all and to eliminate all language discrimination in Belgium, this complaint should be joined to the one submitted by the Dutch-speaking citizens.

If Belgium were to ratify the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and implement it by withdrawing, in accordance with Resolution 1301, the reservations entered on signature and recognising the French-speakers living in the Flemish Region as a national minority within the meaning of the Convention, the problems raised in our petition could be resolved.

We are of course grateful to the Assembly for approving, in September 2002, the report of the Swiss member of parliament, Mrs Nabholz-Haidegger, and Resolution 1301, which was appended to it.

We are also grateful for Recommendation 1623 (2003), following the report of Mr Boris Cilevics, which was approved by the Assembly on 29 September 2003 and invited Belgium to ratify the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities swiftly and without reservations or declarations, and which also invited states that had entered declarations or reservations "to drop them in order to exclude arbitrary and unjustified distinctions, as well as the non-recognition of certain minorities".

However as you are probably aware, ratification of the Framework Convention without reservations and with recognition of the French-speaking minority in the Flemish Region is being blocked by the Flemish parliament, where all the parties have declared it to be politically unthinkable.

Time is probably needed therefore to allow views to change, while fresh contributions from the organs of the Council of Europe may well be necessary to persuade Belgium to apply European democratic standards in their totality.

Under these circumstances and pending Belgium's ratification and fair-minded application of the Framework Convention, we believe that it would be inappropriate for the Assembly to consider a complaint of alleged health discrimination against Dutch-speaking citizens by the bilingual Brussels region without considering the current complaint of real health discrimination against French-speaking citizens by the Flemish Region.

In launching this appeal, in the form of a petition, the undersigned wish to express their confidence in the sense of fairness of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and its concern to eliminate all forms of discrimination.

Erik LIBERT	Georges CLERFAYT	Christian VAN EYKEN
Rue Termeulen, 93	Avenue de la Fauvette, 10	Rue de la Longue Haie 88A
1640 Rhode-Saint-Gen�se	1640 Rhode-Saint-Gen�se	16730 Linkebeek

Arnold D’OREYE de LANTREMANGE	Xavier DELEENHEER	Bernard DURY
Avenue des Pins, 5	Avenue des Paquerettes, 4	Av. la For�t de Soignes, 261
1950 Kraainem	1640 Rhode-Saint-Gen�se	1640 Rhode-Saint-Gen�se

Michel VANDEPUTTE	V�ronique CAPRASSE	Guy CHAPUIS
Rue des Bluets, 29	Rue Esseveld, 14	Kasteelstraat, 72
1950 Kraainem	1950 Kraainem	1853 Strombeek-Bever

Aline VIS	Pierre GODEAU	Jean-Pierre SANS
Avenue des Castonnier, 15	Hof ten Berg	Rue Maurice C�sar, 61
1640 Rhode-Saint-Gen�se	1640 Rhode-Saint-Gen�se	1970 Wezembeek-Oppem