IHF Report 2002

BELGIUM1 59 IHF FOCUS: judicial system; religious intolerance; intolerance, xenophobia, racial discrimination and hate speech; asylum seekers and immigrants; national minorities; women’s rights; rights of the child. The judicial system in Belgium re- cially vulnerable to outside interference.2 mained at the centre of human rights con- There were cases, which no lawyer would cerns: judicial proceedings were excessive- take because they feared retaliation from ly long, the backlog of cases pending in the bar association. courts was huge, and the public’s trust in Theoretically, every citizen had the right the system - and particularly in the inde- to represent him/herself in court and ap- pendence of the judiciary - was low. Also, pear “pro se”- however, lawyers were de- the bar associations posed unnecessary re- nied that right. They were not even allowed strictions on the work of lawyers. to act on behalf of their family members. By law, the authorities enjoyed many Lawyers were also denied free access to the ways of interfering in the activities of reli- courts when they wished to summon a col- gious communities, ranging from registra- league for damage suffered through a tort tion matters to state subsidies. Members of or for breach of contract. These interdictions “non-traditional” minority communities were upheld by the bar associations. faced serious discrimination and harass- ment. Court Malfunctions Despite their formal commitment to In 2001, the Belgian State was convict- non-discrimination against “national minori- ed by the Court of First Instance in Brussels ties”, many Dutch-speaking communes vio- due to its failure to take adequate meas- lated the rights of their French-speaking in- ures to resolve the backlog of cases and habitants. the damage which individual litigants suf- 3 Intolerance and xenophobia remained fered as a consequence. a problem, and there still existed no gener- The Belgian judiciary and court system suffered from structural problems resulting al anti-discrimination law in Belgium. Other in the inability of the judiciary to manage its problems included trafficking in women caseload effectively, which was the main and the practice of the courts to automati- reason for the overwhelming backlog of cally grant rights of custody of the child in cases. However, it was usually claimed that divorce cases to only one parent, usually the backlog was caused by the high litiga- the mother, and to restrict free access by tion rate and dilatory tactics of parties and the other parent to the child. lawyers. Simple and straightforward cases could Judicial System drag on for years because courts post- Bar Associations and Lawyers poned cases and scheduled hearings for The independence of lawyers in far-off dates; it was no exception to witness Belgium remained a problem in 2001. courts setting a hearing date in a minor Lawyers continued to be obstructed and case to 1.5 years after the moment of re- even prevented from acting on behalf of a quest. client due to injunctions and commands of The malfunctioning of courts gave the the presidents of local bar associations. No citizens the impression that no justice measures were taken to prevent this kind could be obtained and that courts thwarted of abuse and manipulation of the judicial the exercise of their rights. As a result, citi- process. Lawyers dealing with sensitive is- zens lost confidence in the system and sues or politically tainted cases were espe- perceived it as corrupt. 60 BELGIUM A case that significantly contributed to who filed complaints with the Council re- distrust towards courts was that of Marc ceived an answer. It therefore appears that Dutroux. the High Council for Justice does not pro- N In 1996 Marc Dutroux was arrested for vide direct answers to the fundamental suspected murder and leading a pedophile problems and issues with which the and child pornography trafficking ring. As of Belgian judiciary is confronted with. the end of 2001, Mr Dutroux and four other Reporting on the administration of jus- suspects remained under investigation tice in Belgium was troublesome. The judiciary and the Government did not keep any pending trial that was scheduled to start in centralized records or statistics of the num- September 2002. Dutroux is a previously ber of complaints received or the actions convicted child sex offender who is serving a taken in disciplining magistrates.4 Available 5-year sentence for theft and assault. The reports were seriously biased, all official re- delays in proceeding with the pedophile and ports were prepared by the Government or trafficking charges against Mr Dutroux raised government institutions, a fact that serious- serious doubts about adequate investigation ly compromised the objectivity and inde- and the judicial system in general. pendence of these reports: the Belgian Concerns about the independence of Government acted both as an auditor and the judiciary were echoed by press reports the audited party. about judges being members of secret societies such as Masonic lodges that tradi- Religious Intolerance tionally have a strong influence on the The relationship between the State Government and the judiciary in Belgium. and religions in Belgium is historically root- Some court cases were allegedly settled ed in the principles of recognition and non- and “arranged” within such societies. recognition of religions. However, recogni- In the aftermath of the paedophile tion criteria have never been enshrined in scandals and the “Dutroux scandal”, Bel- the Constitution, in decrees or in laws. gium had to take some measures to ap- Six religions – Catholicism, Protestan- pease the criticism and outrage of the pop- tism, Judaism, Anglicanism, and Orthodoxy ulation over the serious failure of the judi- – and secular humanism (laïcité) were re- cial system. However, some of these meas- cognized by the State in 2001. The Belgian ures appeared to be only window-dressing State has also used its discretionary power and did not bring about any real improve- to recognize movements within spiritual ments. One such measure was the creation families where diversity prevailed, thus ex- of a High Council for Justice (Conseil Supé- ercising a form of state interference in the rieur de la Justice) which was supposed to religious sphere.5 act as a watchdog for judicial correctness. Not all the movements within the The two main tasks of the Council are to Muslim community have joined the admin- supervise the appointment of judges and istrative representative body, which was to process complaints filed by citizens on recognised by the State as the spokes-or- abuses and miscarriages of justice. gan of Islam. In the secular humanist fami- The Council released its first report on ly, only the Centre d’Action Laïque (Centre 26 November 2001. Of the total amount of Laicist Action) was recognised by the of complaints filed with the Council during State in 2001. 2000 and 2001, 91% were declared inad- Eight Federal Ministries, the Ministries missible. Of the remaining complaints, only of the three linguistic communities, the 43% were processed. Thus, over the sur- Ministries of the three regions (Flanders, veyed period, less than 5% of the persons Wallonia and Brussels), the administrations BELGIUM 61 of the ten provinces and the 589 munici- The information and prevention bro- palities were involved in the financing of chure “Guru, you’d better watch out!”, recognised religions and secular human- which was widely distributed in 1999 by ism. The Federal State paid the salaries, re- the French Community in schools and in tirement and lodging costs of ministers public places, was still used as a reference. and also subsidised the construction and This practice reinforced and strengthened the renovation of places of worship - but negative stereotypes, intolerance and dis- also decided how many clerics would be crimination in society. paid in each religious group. Islam re- N The Anthroposophic Society lost its mained dramatically under-financed by the case against the French Community of Bel- State. Also, the municipalities were obliged gium in a dispute over the above-mentio- to pay any debts incurred by the ecclesias- ned brochure, which presents Anthropo- tical administrations of recognised religions sophy as a dangerous esoteric sect. The without having the right to audit their ac- court declared that the grievances were un- counts. founded and that no fault could be imput- Although some political parties in pow- ed to the French Community, which only er openly raised the issue of the reform of had the information available in the parlia- the discriminatory financing system of reli- mentary report on sects. gions and secular humanism, no draft leg- islation was presented to the Parliament. N In the case of a unilateral breaking of a Jehovah’s Witnesses and other minority rental contract for premises at the Cultural religions were denied the right to bring spir- and Congress Centre of Woluwé-St-Pierre itual assistance to their members in hospi- (Brussels) against the association Sahaja tals, detention places for asylum-seekers Yoga, the Centre’s lawyer demanded that and similar institutions, a right granted only the “sect” be legally dissolved on the basis to clerics of recognised religions and moral that its activities were allegedly damaging advisers of secular humanism. to the public order and contrary to general standards of behaviour. No hearing was The Cult Issue held in 2001. The 1997 list of 189 movements sus- N For years, Jehovah’s Witnesses have pected by the Parliamentary Commission been holding their annual conventions at to be harmful sectarian organisations con- the Brussels Exhibition Centre, but in March tinued to be a source of discrimination by their leaders received a letter notifying private and public authorities, although the them that they could not use that facility for parliamentary report explicitly stated in its their 2001 meeting.

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