HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONSIDERS REPORT OF BELGIUM

The Human Rights Committee has considered the fifth periodic report of Belgium on how that country implements the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Marc Tysebaert, General Counsellor, Federal Public Service Justice, General Directorate of Legislation and Freedoms and Fundamental Rights, Directorate of Fundamental Rights of Belgium, in introductory remarks, said the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was a pillar for the construction of fundamental freedoms and human rights, and should be centred at the heart of relationships characterising human rights. Since the presentation of the preceding report, legislative measures had been suggested on the basis of the Committee's recommendations, but with regard to the current political context, with two Parliaments having been dissolved since the previous report was considered, some initiatives had not been able to be brought to fruition, leaving some work uncompleted. On the establishment of a national institution on human rights, political discussions had been held and various options examined. Although there was no national institution, there were specific institutions dealing with human rights.

Among issues raised by Experts was whether there was any machinery specifically or non-specifically tasked with the implementation of the Committee's observations and those forthcoming from other treaty bodies. Belgium had clearly adopted a number of important laws and measures against discrimination, which was good, but there would always be issues of concern. There was nothing more difficult than training police and law officials with regard to gender - the effort put into it was always less than the result. The lack of a national coordination mechanism in the field of human rights was also of concern. There was a high level of unemployment affecting women, and it did not seem to reflect the State's effort to ensure greater participation by women in public life. What efforts had been expended by the State to remedy sexist images of women in the media, an Expert asked.

Also Experts raised, among other things, that a lot had been done in terms of investigations, but more emphasis should be placed on victims such as women and children, and more resources should be given to the fight against trafficking, and to helping victims, irrespective of their cooperation or not with the judicial authorities. More efforts should be made to assist victims through counselling and reintegration measures. There should be adequate support services to victims, including non-cooperative ones, and Belgium should consider granting victims of trafficking temporary residence permits. With regard to the rights of the child, an Expert asked for clarification - according to Belgian legislation, children between 16 and 18 could not be tried as adults, but the State should take measures to ensure that no child between these ages could be placed in the adult justice system. Were there examples of effective implementation of annulled forced marriages, an Expert asked, pointing out that effective implementation was important to ensure that these rights were guaranteed.

In concluding remarks, Mr. Tysebaert said many of the questions raised by the Committee would be taken back to the political authorities in Brussels so as to ensure that there was follow-up. All human rights must be considered globally, and Belgium set great store in all the Committee's recommendations, and would effectively try to put them into place and implement them on the ground.

Also in concluding remarks, Yuji Iwasawa, Committee Chairperson, said he was grateful for the dialogue, which had been very efficient. The dialogue had been very efficient, with the cooperation of the delegation, and it had been very constructive and rich.

The delegation of Belgium also contained representatives of the Walloon region, the Belgian Police Force, the Ministry of Justice, the Flemish Department of Foreign Affairs, the General Directorate of Legislation and Freedoms and Fundamental Rights, the Centre for Equality of Chances and the Fight against Racism, and the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The next meeting of the Committee will be at 3 p.m. this afternoon, when the Committee will consider its methods of work.

Report of Belgium

The fifth periodic report of Belgium (CCPR/C/BEL/5) presents a detailed account of the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in Belgian territory, where, in the performance of their duties, those authorities are competent to enforce standards relating to human rights that are enshrined in the Belgian Constitution and Belgian law. All contraventions of provisions designed as safeguards for fundamental rights are minutely examined, and political, administrative and judicial remedies for them are available. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is an integral part of Belgian law; its provisions can be adduced before a Belgian judge, who will enforce them in so far as they are directly applicable. Belgian courts, including both ordinary courts and administrative tribunals, have generally acknowledged the direct applicability of the Covenant and rule in accordance with its provisions more or less automatically, even though this statement can be said to be implicit in most instances.

The Government of Belgium wishes to make it clear that the initiation of judicial proceedings and the consideration of those proceedings while underway do not, in principle, affect the administrative status of illegal aliens. The fact that judicial proceedings are in progress does not, of itself, serve to authorize such aliens to stay in the country. For example, the lodging of a complaint at criminal law is not under any circumstances a means of preventing or avoiding expulsion from the country. Numerous measures have been implemented, both by the Federal State and by the federated entities, with a view to transposing new European directives dealing with discrimination. The scope of the new legislation includes employment (including access to employment, working conditions, the breaking of employer-employee relations, and affiliation to a trade union), the access to and supply of goods and services available to the public, social security and social protection, reference in an official document or record, and access to and participation in any economic, social, cultural or political activity that is open to members of the general public.

In Belgium, as in many other countries, there are, generally speaking, fewer women than men in political and public life. Since January 2002, various measures have been taken to promote a balance between men and women in many areas of political and public life. The internal monitoring services of the Federal police and local police forces are always alert for complaints about their members alleging discrimination, racism or xenophobia. When information about mistreatment of any persons, regardless of whether the alleged mistreatment occurred while the person concerned was in custody or not, is brought to the attention of the competent authorities and services, a meticulous investigation is always conducted, accompanied, where indicated, by disciplinary action. A decision to take punitive action against a perpetrator, after an exhaustive investigation and examination of the evidence, is the prerogative of the disciplinary and/or judicial authorities. Numerous partners are contributing to the task of developing a palette of assistance and services for prison inmates.

Presentation of Report

MARC TYSEBAERT, General Counsellor, Federal Public Service Justice, General Directorate of Legislation and Freedoms and Fundamental Rights, Directorate of Fundamental Rights of Belgium, in introductory remarks, said Belgium thanked the Committee for its list of issues. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was a pillar for the construction of fundamental freedoms and human rights, and should be centred at the heart of relationships characterising human rights. Since the presentation of the preceding report, legislative measures had been suggested on the basis of the Committee's recommendations, but with regard to the current political context, with two Parliaments having been dissolved since the previous report was considered, some initiatives had not been able to be brought to fruition, leaving some work uncompleted.

Mr. Tysebaert then took up the list of issues, presenting answers to these. On the issue of the reservations that Belgium had made to certain provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Belgium wished to maintain these in order to maintain consistency in its international commitments in the field of human rights, but also with regard to national programming with regard to legislation regulating the judicial situation of detainees. Belgium was a Federal state, with regional entities with their own competencies. Focal points were established in each Federal department and entity. An institutionalised procedure had been established, coordinating on issues requiring coordination, requiring the focal points and experts from different departments to meet to determine national coordination. On the establishment of a national institution on human rights, political discussions had been held and various options examined. Although there was no national institution, there were specific institutions dealing with human rights. On the application of new legislation against discrimination, the Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism had seen that Belgian courts did apply criminal provisions, applying higher penalties if the crime was committed for racist reasons. There was a Plan of Action seeking to improve diversity of staff, including through a Diversity Charter of Federal Administration, and the appointment of a person responsible for diversity in each administration.

With regard to the policy of equality between men and women, Mr. Tysebaert said the Government was called upon, by law, to fix strategic goals leading to equality between men and women. Legislative and regulatory texts therefore had to pass a "gender test" before they could be adopted. Legislation favouring the participation of women in public life was very strict, establishing rules with regard to lists and quotas for each sex in legislative institutions as well as in the Executive and Advisory Bodies. With regard to access in certain Flemish-speaking communities to certain communal services and the need to learn or commit to learning the Dutch language, these were dispositions taken by the individual communes, and not by the Government. These linguistic requirements had not given rise to any rejection of applicants for social housing, and there were no indications that they had been shown to be an obstacle to the persons involved.

On arbitrary detentions, judicial and administrative arrest of a person was managed by the law of 20 July 1990 on preventive detention, as well as the law on police activities which determined the cases under which a person could be deprived of their liberty. There was a convention between the Police and the Centre for Equal Opportunity, determining that training was given at the Centre on anti-racism and anti-discrimination legislation. On management of complaints, the Federal Police, when these were made, were subjected to an official acknowledgement sent to the plaintiff, and also to internal control. At the end of the inquiry, the results of the inquiry and the remedy thereto were transmitted to the plaintiff. If this involved criminal proceedings, the competent legal authority was given the case. The legal status of detainees was developed in the Law of Principles of 2005, Mr. Tysebaert said, noting that detainees could turn to the courts with regard to the conditions of detention, as well as on disciplinary means and measures. Alternative sentences were used as an alternative solution to over-crowding, such as electronic surveillance, and the Government was considering broadening the latter.

Questions by Experts

Experts then raised a number of questions and issues, whether there was any machinery specifically or non-specifically tasked with the implementation of the Committee's observations and those forthcoming from other treaty bodies. Domestic law underwrote international law, and, in virtue of the Vienna Convention on Treaty Law, was considered to be a fact, and could not be violated by foreign commitments and pledges by the State. On the status of foreigners, the international private law code included the rule of following national law when it came to establishing individuals' status, but it should be considered whether there was a need to consider Belgian law in this regard. An Expert also appealed to Belgium to make a better showing on the gender equality front next time it appeared before the Committee, as there was a dearth of women representatives in the delegation. Belgium had clearly adopted a number of important laws and measures against discrimination, which was good, but there would always be issues of concern. There was nothing more difficult than training police and law officials with regard to gender - the effort put into it was always less than the result.

Discrimination against non-citizens had always been present in Belgium, but there appeared to be no decrease, showing that there was a problem with enforcement of programmes and measures to counter this phenomenon. Was the Police in Belgium empowered to issue expulsion orders or other protection orders, an Expert asked? The efforts to ensure gender equality at the Federal, regional and community level were commended, but an Expert requested domestic violence figures, which were lacking from the responses to the List of Issues. The lack of a national coordination mechanism in the field of human rights was also of concern. There was a high level of unemployment affecting women, and it did not seem to reflect the State's effort to ensure greater participation by women in public life. What efforts had been expended by the State to remedy sexist images of women in the media, an Expert asked, also pointing out that women who suffered from physical disabilities were doubly handicapped by their disability and gender, and were excluded from certain professional posts because of the former, and in the case of a non-financially and economically disadvantaged country such as Belgium, this should be remedied, through programmes and policies that took into account the gender aspect of disability.

Response by Delegation

Responding to these issues and questions and others, on the national human rights commission, the delegation said it was true that Belgium did not yet have such a body. This was a deliberate choice - the issue was raised directly some time ago, and was now coming back in a rather indirect way in specific cases. One difficulty was political, the other technical - there were a whole series of sectoral agencies that dealt with fundamental rights, all of which had mandates that were directly or indirectly linked to fundamental rights, but did not come under the Paris Principles. As for the political difficulty, significant reforms were going to be undertaken, so this was not necessarily the best moment to discuss this issue, when the federal and federated agencies were going to be reviewed. However, Belgium needed to reflect internally on this, as a national commission would allow to fill the gaps on human rights that were not covered by different institutions.

With regard to persons with disabilities, this had been an issue raised among the focal points, with regard to the policy coordination required for implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Different measures were being adopted, the delegation said. Certain Experts had raised article 50 of the Covenant - Belgium was bound by the Covenant, and the division of competencies between different Federal agencies was similar to that in other federal States. Belgium ensured its application over the entire territory of the country - each piece of legislation was investigated by the Council of State before it was fully approved. Afterwards, any legislation could be appealed against to the Constitutional Court. There were therefore safeguards in this regard, and the Covenant had a direct effect, it being possible to invoke it before the courts anywhere in Belgium.

On conjugal violence, the delegation said with regard to the definition of this or of violence between partners, Belgium preferred not to have a specific definition, as the crime had many different faces, and had always preferred to look at the specific circumstances before incriminating anybody. The increase in sentencing gave an examining magistrate the possibility of delivering a warrant under conditions specified under preventive detention rules. The article of the Criminal Code dealing with rape referred specifically to an act of sexual penetration on a person who was not consenting, and this could be qualified as rape when the persons were married or partners. There were other important articles in the Criminal Code to do with forced marriages, harassment, and others. On aggravating circumstances, murder, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, these were also punished between partners. There were no specific regulations on compensation or redress.

With regard to the police, and whether they could stipulate non-contact orders, the delegation said that they could, but tried to have an approach where they could quickly intervene, acting in a holistic way, so they could bring together social services and victim assistance institutions together as quickly as possible. Article 16 and paragraph 4 of the law on preventive detention provided for having a person informed, in the first 24 hours of detention, of their right to a lawyer, and, should they not have one, have one provided to them. They could communicate freely with their counsel - this right could not be restricted. Following jurisprudence from the European Human Rights Court, the right to meet with a lawyer was ensured before the first hearing before a magistrate. Every person interrogated was given the right to answer or not the questions being asked. Over the last years, the Government had increased budgetary provisions for legal assistance by nearly 150 per cent.

Concerning the legal convention allowing Belgian prisoners to be held in Holland, this was a bilateral convention. This arrangement solved a whole series of problems, including applicable law. The entire prison regime in the Tilberg prison came under the Belgian penal code. Concerning the Dupont law dealing with security, medical care and religious practices, it had not all been implemented, and Belgium believed preparing the implementation of this act of principle had to be done as professionally as possible, training professionals, making them aware, and running a series of pilot projects to ensure that it was really applicable in the field, including consultations, which were currently held in eight Belgian principles. Most of the provisions were in place and should have come into effect in 2010, but the dissolving of the Government had caused difficulties in this regard. With regard to overcrowding, this was a very complicated problem, the delegation said, and Belgium recognized the existence of this problem in prisons, even more so as it was not equally distributed over prisons, with some extremely overcrowded. However, overcrowding was indeed a scandal with regard to certain prisons. Belgium was not, however, the only country suffering from this in Europe. It was all the more serious as sometimes it was in combination with obsolete infrastructure from the nineteenth century, and the Prisons Administration had drawn up a Master Plan aiming not only to increase capacity, but also to have normal capacity, not under-capacity. There was also a thorough renovation of all prisons, which had been achieved, but some of the older prisons needed replaced - this would take place up unto 2016, at which point Belgium hoped to be where it needed to be in terms of capacities and numbers of detainees.

On the promotion of alternatives to imprisonment, the delegation said Belgium had always had an open penitentiary policy in this regard, with some detentions held in the community. There were also work alternatives to imprisonment, release on parole during pre-trial detention, and a range of other measures, all of which were promoted. Structures were implemented locally and regionally, bringing together all stakeholders for an exchange of information. There was training for judicial authorities, and each detention or correction house had a coordinator responsible for raising awareness.

In terms of legislation, the respect for a child's moral, physical, sexual and other identity was protected through the Constitution, and the Civil Code ensured mutual respect between peers. Corporal punishment, according to circumstances, could constitute grievous bodily harm or degrading treatment, whether committed by other minors, parents, or other persons with authority over the child. There were Family Courts, and federal bodies which had created independent bodies which provided a range of services to families, inter alia, information on health, nutrition, and the safety of children, and also provided individual support to families, promoting respectful education of children, prohibiting corporal punishment and offering pedagogical alternatives. There was also individual specific support for women.

On reform of the minor justice system, this was based on subsidiarity and on the idea of respect for justice. All justices should prefer subsidiarity and prefer measures that respected the freedom of minors, favouring other measures to incarceration - if there was internment, it should be of preference open internment. There were also restorative measures - social services would be called upon to monitor the individual, who would be provided with general interest education, out-treatment in psychological establishments, mediation, and education in a group. Electronic tagging was not applicable to minors, the delegation said. Communities were responsible for minors, but the Federal system was able to intervene in certain regards. With regard to reintegration and reinsertion, there were programmes to favour this through centres aiming to give them a better self-image, from the perspective of individualisation.

The delegation said, on ill-treatment from the police, the police force carried out millions of police interventions every year, and naturally there were some mistakes committed, given the nature and scale of the Force. There was a regulatory framework and provisions, including the Law on Police Function, on Police Ethics, the Code laid down in a Royal decree, and others. There was internal control and hierarchical monitoring, and a General Inspectorate that was independent of the Police Force. There was also traditional and judicial oversight - the Police unions often complained that it was the most controlled Police Force in Europe. There were no negative trends - the number of unjustified or over-ruled complaints was very high, to the extent that the Government was looking into penalising these in some way. Tasers were an arm that was deemed to be a less-lethal weapon. Their use had to be preceded by a Ministerial Decision, and regular training by those authorised to use these weapons. Police preferred Tasers, as they therefore had an option to more lethal weapons when faced with extreme violence. However, the Government was not in favour of this, although the issue was still under consideration.

With regard to the Police Committee and its composition, it was important to understand the internal structure - it was made up of five members, elected by Parliament, and they were judges and magistrates who were independent of the Police, and also had an investigative body made up of police staff on secondment and statutory members.

On discrimination, the delegation said that in the European Year for Equality for All in 2007, Belgium had carried out a lot of publicity so that the new legal provisions could be communicated to people at large and that the idea in society should be widespread to the effect that discrimination was not allowed. There was also a hotline to register complaints and reduce the access threshold. In 2010, the Walloon region carried out a Stop Discrimination Campaign, and a brochure had been distributed in the French community linked to awareness-raising on non-discrimination. There were several initiatives to collect data. On police training, the Centre providing this had an agreement with the police services to ensure anti-discrimination training and to examine diversity within the police force and hold a special module on sexual minorities and sexual discrimination.

With regard to disabilities, the judiciary aspect was residual, and where there was evidence of discrimination, efforts aimed to convince people of the unfairness of the situation, rather than resorting to the judiciary. Up to now, the figure of women in unemployment was a reality and was explained in part by the number of women who did not have high-school diplomas. These trends took time to correct, but women's lack of educational certificates was changing over the last ten years. On the Federal level, measures had been taken to increase women's access to education and employment and a yearly report was being produced. There had been a decrease in the wage gap. With regard to girls with disabilities, who were doubly discriminated against, a study had been made, the results of which were available, and initiatives would probably be put in place later this year.

In response to brief follow-up questions, Mr. Tysebaert said Belgium would study all the recommendations made by international bodies, in concert with non-governmental organizations and other bodies, and would set up specific actions to implement them, with coordination guaranteed by the Federal Ministry of Justice. The issue of diversity of competencies was explained by the fact that the Belgium State was bound to international bodies and was responsible for following through recommendations. The delegation had taken note of the suggestion to create a national human rights institution in this context, and Belgium would examine how its institutions could be mutually reinforcing and not counter-productive, complementary to the existing Federal bodies.

Presentation by Delegation

Continuing its answers to the List of Issues, Mr. Tysebaert said the issue of trafficking was not just a criminal issue, and thus the Government took a broader approach to it. On arrest and how far people were able to have access to immediate care, measures had been taken in this regard, so that from the first moment of arrest, an individual had access to a doctor - instructions had been given to the various services covering all possibilities. On access to a lawyer, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice was relevant here, and there was some discussion on how to integrate these principles into Belgian jurisprudence. With regard to refoulement, in general in Belgium the mechanism was basically the voluntary return of individuals, and, if the legal time-frames were not respected, then there was a forcible return to the border, but this was done in respect of all rights, and the General Inspectorate ensured that refoulement and removal was done in full respect of human rights and of various recommendations that had been made.

With regard to references to certain anti-Semitic and other incidents, there was a body which met four times a year and highlighted the phenomenon of Islamophobia as well as discrimination. On forced marriage and family planning, there was a brochure for young people who could potentially be victims of this, and there were some short theatre sketches to raise awareness, focusing rather more on goals, but the Equal Opportunities Centre was reaching out to boys and young men who could also be victims of this phenomenon.

Questions by Experts

In a second round of questions and issues, Experts raised, among other things, that a lot had been done in terms of investigations, but more emphasis should be placed on victims such as women and children, and more resources should be given to the fight against trafficking, and to helping victims, irrespective of their cooperation or not with the judicial authorities. More efforts should be made to assist victims through counselling and reintegration measures, there should be adequate support services to victims, including non-cooperative ones, and Belgium should consider granting victims of trafficking temporary residence permits. The issue of monitoring of deportation procedures and to ensure that persons had access to remedies and compensation was also of importance, but it appeared that the number of complaints was far too small; to have three complaints in 2004 and six in 2008 did not seem feasible. Further, there was a need to explain what had been the results of complaints that had gone through judicial channels, and what remedies had been provided.

On anti-Semitism, xenophobia, violence and racism, an Expert said he got the general impression that the legal response in Belgium had been fairly well developed - actions undertaken by the different institutions and authorities to contain the phenomenon were praiseworthy, but there was also the impression that both legislation and measures were proving to be insufficient to contain the phenomenon, which continued to grow, and the Expert asked for further details on the activities of the anti-Semitic Unit and whether it could take incidents to court. With regard to the rights of the child, an Expert asked for clarification - according to Belgian legislation, children between 16 and 18 could not be tried as adults, but the State should take measures to ensure that no child between these ages could be placed in the adult justice system. Were there examples of effective implementation of annulled forced marriages, an Expert asked, pointing out that effective implementation was important to ensure that these rights were guaranteed.

Response by Delegation

Responding to these questions and issues, the delegation said that Belgium had ratified the Convention against Human Trafficking, and it came into force in August 2009. There was a directive supporting the victims of trafficking, but also protecting persons from becoming victims of trafficking. Victims received psycho-social services, accompaniment and legal aid, among other services. The 2004-81 Directive was possibly going to be amended. Belgium, as a Member State would be adapting its legislation in light of this amendment to the Directive. On appeals, legislation had been amended on access to stay and referral of foreigners, with the aim of the amendment being to ensure that there be a five-day period (instead of 24 hours) during which a foreigner could introduce an appeal. Pursuant to this law, apart from agreement by the interested party themselves, the refoulement could not be carried out. There was also oversight of legality and application of the principle of proportionality, and the Chambre de Conseil verified whether measures depriving an individual of liberty were in line with the law, and whether they needed to be maintained in light of the ends desired.

Individuals who were in the country illegally or irregularly could be detained at any time, and the Belgian State had an order in its laws to leave the country in this regard, with a timeframe of 30 days, however, the latter would change soon, with a seven- to thirty-day timeframe, with exceptions. Belgium preferred individuals to leave the territory of their own free will, and to have recourse to voluntary return. There were alternatives to detention - there were homes for families, which were made available to families who did not leave the country voluntarily, where they were supported by a coach, to make all members of the family ready for removal. Families who turned up at the border with children could also benefit from these centres and homes. There was a Complaints Commission which allowed foreigners who were kept in closed centres or homes to be able to lodge appeals, which had to do with everything linked to the regimes operating in these homes and centres. The Commission could make recommendations, and it acted as well as other possibilities for appeal.

On use of force by the Police, the law enshrined the principle of legality, subsidiarity, proportionality, etc, as pointed out earlier, the delegation said, but it was important to bear in mind that this was very well thought through, and the police services had had substantial training so as to implement these principles if they had to have use of force. The use of force was limited to what was strictly necessary to carry out a mission, and could not be used in an unlimited means of control or intimidation. The State only used forced returns if there was no other choice, and this was why there were very few of them. A Permanent Committee would be set up to follow through on the forcible removal of foreigners, but unfortunately it had not yet been created.

Hearings without the assistance of a lawyer were not an obstacle to prosecution, the delegation said, and this jurisprudence had been used on several occasions in rulings, which had led to a change in legislation - there were ongoing discussions in Parliament, and before this there were ongoing hearings in the Justice Commission and the Senate, which would continue next week, the delegation said. On forced marriages, there were no statistical figures yet, but there was a registry code which was set up in the State system, and the figures within that did not allow the statistical analysts to provide reliable figures. There was no information on annulled forced marriages. On relinquishment of jurisdiction, this had not been repealed nor were there any plans to change it, but in 2006 with the major reform, several measures had been provided to cover this issue better, aiming at reducing the number of relinquishments, taking educational and restorative measures in this regard, and extending the length of these measures to avoid too many people using this system. This was an exceptional measure, and could only be done for minors over 16 years of ages who were not suited to other measures, following study.

On anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, Mr. Tysebaert said that Belgium recognized religions and they were able to receive subsidies. Religions operated freely, and people exercised their beliefs - the recognition system merely had to do with subsidies from public institutions. Islam had been recognized in 1974. At present in Belgium in the Walloon region there were 55 recognized mosques, in Brussels there were 7, and in the Flemish region there were 17. There were about 20 imams on the payroll. The State could not intervene in the appointment of ministers of a religion - this belonged to the representatives of the Islamic association, and was linked to a rather technical procedure, and the appointments were delayed. The number of imams would increase. Belgium was proposing to recognize 144 mosques out of the 300-odd on which it had received information. Some of these were very small, others were not interested in subsidies and were not registering as mosques. The delegation said Islamophobia, with the criteria of religious and philosophical conviction, and anti-Semitism, including Holocaust denial, were covered by legislation, including incitement to religious hatred, and there were prosecutions and possible convictions. It was a fact that there was a debate with regard to freedom of expression and incitement to hatred, and there were three classes of cases that could constitute Islamophobia: acts that could be punished; facts that were Islamophobia but did not fall under the law but also required a response as they could lead to intensifying mistrust, fear and tension; and incidents that were initially considered to be Islamophobia, but did not turn out to be after examination.

With regard to statistics on violence and harassment in schools, the delegation said these statistics were not immediately available. There were measures, awareness campaigns that were carried out, and an initiative of the French Community's delegation for the protection and promotion of children's rights on a list of rules for children's playgrounds, and educating children into non-violent and non-discriminatory behaviour in playgrounds.

Answers to follow-up questions would be provided in writing due to a lack of time.

Concluding Remarks

MARC TYSEBAERT, General Counsellor, Federal Public Service Justice, General Directorate of Legislation and Freedoms and Fundamental Rights, Directorate of Fundamental Rights, in concluding remarks, said Belgium thanked the Committee for its efforts in examining the contents of the report of Belgium, as well as for all the comments and questions. Some of the questions perhaps had not been answered - this did not mean that the delegation had not listened, or that they had not been taken on board. Many of them would be taken back to the political authorities in Brussels so as to ensure that there was follow-up. All human rights must be considered globally, and Belgium set great store in all the Committee's recommendations, and would effectively try to put them into place and implement them on the ground. The Committee was thanked for the very enriching discussion, and the exchange of views.

YUJI IWASAWA, Committee Chairperson, said he was grateful for the dialogue, which had been very efficient. The Committee often did not have time for follow-up questions in the second round of questions but had managed to fit them in this time. In that sense, the dialogue had been very efficient, with the cooperation of the delegation, and it had been very constructive and rich.


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