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TITLE: BELGIUM HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1993
DATE: JANUARY 31,1994
AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
BELGIUM
Belgium is a longstanding parliamentary democracy under a
constitutional monarch whose role is largely ceremonial. King
Albert II acceded to the throne in August, following the death
of his brother, King Baudouin I. The Council of Ministers
(Cabinet), led by the Prime Minister, is responsible for
government decisions. The Cabinet holds office as long as it
retains the confidence of the bicameral Parliament.
Constitutional reforms passed by Parliament in July transformed
Belgium into a federal state. Directly elected legislatures
will replace regional councils in Dutch-speaking Flanders,
French-speaking Wallonia, and the Brussels capital region. In
addition to further decentralizing government authority, the
July reforms will reduce the size of the national Parliament.
National, municipal, and judicial police forces bear the
primary responsibility for domestic security. The armed forces
play no role in domestic law enforcement.
Belgium is a highly industrialized state with a vigorous
private sector and government participation in certain
industries. An extensive social welfare system supports a high
standard of living for most Belgians.
The Constitution and laws contain provisions for respect for
human rights, which are observed in practice. The Government
is sensitive to allegations of domestic human rights violations.
Controversy over immigration continued as the backlog of asylum
requests nearly doubled in the first half of 1993. In
response, several local governments announced that they would
refuse legal residence and usual social services to asylum
seekers. The Government termed such actions illegal. At the
end of the year, a number of municipalities and communes,
including Liege, continued to refuse to register asylum
seekers, thereby denying them federally mandated social
benefits. Many local governments reportedly did not follow a
consistent policy, registering some, but not all, asylum
seekers.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
Freedom from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
There were no known political or other extrajudicial killings.
b. Disappearance
Abductions, secret arrests, and clandestine detentions are not
known to occur.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment
There were no reports of such treatment or punishment being
employed in Belgium. See Somalia report for allegations of
human rights abuses by Belgian forces serving with the United
Nations Operations in Somalia. A Belgian Ministry of Defense
inquiry was launched in August and, separately, the Military
Prosecutor's Office continued to examine certain allegations of
mistreatment by Belgian military personnel.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
Freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment is provided for
by law and respected in practice. Arrested persons must be
brought before a judge within 24 hours. Pretrial confinement
is allowed only under certain legally specified circumstances.
The premise for such confinement is subject to monthly review
by a panel of judges, who may extend pretrial detention based
on carefully circumscribed criteria (e.g., whether, in the
court's view, the arrested person would be likely to commit
further crimes or attempt to flee the jurisdiction if
released). Arrested persons are allowed prompt access to a
lawyer of their choosing or, if they cannot afford one, an
attorney appointed by the State. Bail exists in principle
under Belgian law but is rarely granted. Exile is not
permitted by law and does not occur.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
A fair public trial is assured by law and honored in practice.
A suspect is formally charged, if the evidence so warrants,
once a preliminary judicial investigatory phase is
completed. Charges are clearly and formally stated, and there
is a presumption of innocence.
Defendants have the right to be present, the right to counsel
(provided at public expense if needed), the right to confront
witnesses and present evidence, and the right of appeal. The
judiciary's independence is provided for by the Constitution
and observed in practice. Belgium has a system of military
tribunals, before which military personnel are tried for both
military and common law crimes. All Belgian military
tribunals, including those at the appellate level, are composed
of four officers and one civilian judge. The superior officer
presides at the level of first instance; the civilian judge
presides at the appeals tribunal. The accused has the right of
appeal to a higher military court. The military tribunal
system continued to be under review in 1993; the Government is
considering the abolishment of tribunal authority over all but
strictly military offenses.
Beginning in October, all new judges were required to
demonstrate legal knowledge and their qualifications for the
position through an examination process directed by eminent
jurists and legal scholars. The first competency examinations
were given to judges in 1992. In October 1993, the Government
began dismissing those judges who fared poorly on the tests.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
Freedom from arbitrary state interference with privacy is
guaranteed by law and respected in practice. Search warrants
issued by a judge are required unless the inhabitants of a
domicile agree to a search. Access to information from
wiretaps is restricted under law, but their use remained
illegal pending parliamentary action.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
These freedoms are assured by law and respected in practice.
An independent press, an effective judiciary, and a functioning
democratic political system combine to ensure freedom of speech
and press. Academic freedom is respected.
The Government operates several radio and television networks
but does not control program content. Programs are supervised
by boards of directors which represent the main political,
linguistic, and opinion groups. A government representative
sits on each board but has no veto power. Private radio and
television stations operate with government licenses. Almost
all homes have access by cable to television from other Western
European countries.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Public assembly is subject to regulations concerning public
order but is otherwise unrestricted. Groups protesting
government policies or actions are free from harassment and
persecution. Permits are required for open-air assemblies but
are granted routinely; there are restrictions on blocking major
arteries to and from downtown Brussels and on entering a small
zone near the Royal Palace and Parliament. Belgians are free
to form organizations and establish ties to international
bodies.
c. Freedom of Religion
Belgium has a long tradition of religious tolerance. The Roman
Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Jewish, and Muslim religions
are accorded a "recognized" status in law and granted a
government subsidy. Government subsidies to recognized
religions are drawn from general government revenues.
Objecting taxpayers have no recourse against contributing to
religious subsidies. Minority "unrecognized" religions enjoy
full freedom to practice and are not subject to harassment or
persecution. Organized religions may establish places of
worship and train numbers of clergy adequate to serve
believers. Links may be maintained with coreligionists in
other countries or a supranational hierarchy, and foreign
missionaries may proselytize. By law, all officially
"recognized" religions have the right to provide teachers to
give religious instruction in the schools, but not all avail
themselves of this right.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
Belgians are free to travel both within the country and abroad
and may return to Belgium at any time. Emigration is not
restricted, nor is citizenship revoked for political reasons.
Citizens are free to choose their places of work and
residence. The Government does not force asylum seekers to
return to countries where they face persecution.
Increasing applications for political asylum had created a
large backlog by August. In response, the Parliament
authorized the hiring of 100 additional government lawyers to
adjudicate asylum cases. Six Brussels-area municipalities with
large foreign-born populations have permission from the
Government to refuse until 1995 legal residence to any
foreigners from outside the European Community. The city of
Liege, which has Belgium's largest refugee population, and
certain other municipalities announced that they would deny
legal residence and nationally mandated social services to
asylum seekers. Other communes reportedly registered some but
not all asylum seekers who applied. If refused in one locale,
asylum seekers have the option of seeking registration as legal
residents in another, thus gaining entitlement to social
services.
Calling the actions of recalcitrant local governments illegal,
the national Government has favored a political rather than a
legal or administrative approach to resolving the problem. In
Belgian law, only the individual applicant has legal standing
to litigate against an authority refusing to register him or
her. Administrative procedures to compel local government
compliance with national law are cumbersome. At year's end,
the Interior Ministry was seeking to establish a centralized
national asylum seekers' register by which it hoped to receive
better cooperation from local governments by ensuringa more
equitable distribution of the human and financial burden of
hosting asylum seekers.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Participation in the democratic political system is open to all
citizens 18 years of age and over. Direct popular elections
for parliamentary seats (excluding some senators elected by
provincial councils and others elected by senate members) are
held at least every 4 years under a system of universal,
secret, and compulsory (under penalty of fine) suffrage for all
adults.
In law and practice, opposition parties are free to operate
without constraints or repression. Of the 24 parties competing
in the last national elections in November 1991, 14 gained
seats in Parliament. A 4-party coalition Government, the
members of which secured 52 percent of the popular vote, has
been in power since March 1992. There are no restrictions, in
law or in practice, on the participation of women or minorities
in government or politics. Two of 16 federal ministers, 2 of 8
Flemish regional ministers, and 1 of 4 Francophone community
ministers are women. There are no women ministers in the
Walloon or Brussels regional, or Germanophone community,
governments. In the federal Parliament, 19 of 212 house
members (9 percent) and 20 of 184 senators (11 percent) are
women. About 12 percent of provincial council members are
women, as are about 14 percent of municipal council members.
The Government sent to Parliament at the end of 1993 a draft
law that would require at least 33 percent representation of
each sex on electoral tickets beginning in 1999. Until then,
the law would require, beginning in 1994, a 25 percent gender
minimum for communal and municipal elections only.
The presidents of Belgium's main political parties are males.
The two Green parties (Flemish Agalev and Francophone Ecolo) do
not have party presidents. Some of Agalev's most prominent
members are women.
The existence of communities speaking Dutch, French, and German
engenders significant complexities for the State. All major
institutions, including political parties, are divided along
linguistic lines. There are specific provisions for Dutch-,
French-, and German-speaking councils at the regional level.
Regional and linguistic needs are taken into account in
national political and economic decisions.
A package of constitutional reforms passed in July will
transform the regional councils into directly elected
assemblies. These in turn will elect from among their members
the regional governments. The reforms further decentralized
authority by adding trade and agriculture to the
responsibilities of the regional governments. Under the new
laws, the next federal Parliament will have the reduced
membership stipulated by the constitutional reforms. It will
be formed at the next parliamentary elections, to take place at
the latest by December 1995. The federal House of
Representatives will be reduced from 212 to 150 directly
elected members. The new Senate will shrink from 183 to 71
members, 40 of whom will be directly elected, 21 designated by
regional assemblies, and 10 selected by the Senate.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
Several active independent human rights groups operate freely
without government interference. No requests have been made
for outside investigation of the human rights situation in
Belgium.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Disability, Language, or Social Status
Women
The Government actively promotes women's rights. The 1994
budget stipulates that a director, to be hired in mid-1994,
will begin work on a national women's center; this work is
expected to be completed by the end of 1994. A number of
commissions have been established to ensure that women's rights
are protected and to oversee women's education and working
conditions. A 1992 royal decree prohibited sexual harassment
in the workplace in both the public and private sectors, where
sexual harassment ombudsmen must be designated in all
workplaces with at least 50 employees.
Credible reports of organized rings smuggling foreign women
into Belgium for the purpose of prostitution received wide
publicity. A parliamentary commission was created in December,
1992 to investigate. In 1993 it released three public
statements but not its final conclusions. Belgian law
prohibits organizing prostitution, assisting illegal
immigration into Belgium, and providing illegal employment. No
leaders of rings trafficking in women had been arrested by the
end of 1993, although disciplinary action had been taken
against police officers in Ghent for assisting the rings.
Physical abuse of women is punishable by law, and the law is
enforced. In reaction to a 1988 government study that
concluded that 25 percent of Belgian women had encountered some
form of physical abuse, legislation on sexual abuse was enacted
in 1989, broadening the scope of the previous legislation to
allow for prosecution of conjugal sexual abuse and rendering
penalties more severe. Certain sexual abuse cases may be tried
before a court of assizes, a higher instance than the usual
district court.
Children
Belgium has comprehensive child protection laws.
Administration of youth welfare programs is handled at the
linguistic community level. Human rights groups have
criticized the law that allows the imprisonment of children for
up to 15 days when there is no space in juvenile detention
centers. There are occasional reports of judges sending
juvenile offenders to prison in Wallonia.
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Belgium is a pluralistic society in which individual
differences in general are respected and linguistic rights in
particular are protected. Some 60 percent of Belgians are
native Dutch speakers living primarily in the northern
provinces that constitute Flanders. The approximately 40
percent of the population who are French speakers live mostly
in Brussels and the southern provinces of Wallonia. A small
minority of German speakers lives along the eastern border.
The 1993 laws that federalized Belgium were the latest of
hundreds passed over the past century to protect each language
group from cultural, economic, or political dominance by the
others.
Food, shelter, health care, and education are supposed to be
available to all residents regardless of race, sex, religion,
language, social status, or ethnic background. Some communes,
however, contined to refuse to register new asylum seekers,
thereby denying then mandated social services in those specific
localities. (See Section 2.d. regarding an effort to ease this
problem by the establishment of a national asylum seekers'
register.) Some 27 percent of the residents of Brussels, the
largest city, are foreigners. Many of these are North African
and Turkish immigrants. Encouraging the further integration of
the immigrant population and coping with the rising number of
asylum seekers and Eastern European immigrants continues to be
a focus of strong public debate. The national Center for Equal
Opportunity and Against Racism, charged by Parliament with
promoting integration and interethnic dialog, began work in
1993. Its director, as chairman of the Interministerial
Council on Minority Affairs, reports directly to the Prime
Minister. The Center spent much of its first year organizing
and hiring. Priority projects include helping to establish a
representative council for the Muslim community of Belgium
(through which the Government could distribute funds for the
Muslim clergy). By year's end, the Center had opened a
mediation center to handle complaints about racism and
xenophobia, and its legal section was studying ways to propose
strengthening Belgium's 1981 law against racist and xenophobic
acts.
According to polls, support for the extreme rightist, openly
anti-immigrant Flemish party, Vlaams Blok, increased slightly
since it won 12 parliamentary seats in the 1991 elections.
Mainstream parties generally treat the Vlaams Blok as a pariah
or ignore it. The party continues to call for repatriation of
immigrants to their native lands. Belgium has not experienced
concerted, overt campaigns of violence directed at immigrants,
asylum centers, or hostels. The one series of incidents of
violence against foreigners in 1993 occurred in the town of
Sint-Truiden, where Sikh migrant agricultural workers were
repeatedly harassed and intimidated by some of the local
residents. In early August a Sikh was shot in the arm and the
following week a firebomb slightly damaged a house where 10
Sikhs lived but caused no injuries. Two men were arrested
shortly after the attack and were awaiting trial at year's
end. The size and scope of future immigration continues to be
a sensitive political topic, and many underlying issues
regarding integration of existing immigrant groups have yet to
be addressed.
People with Disabilities
Each of the three linguistic community councils administers a
fund for the social integration of the disabled. The funds
support placement of the disabled in jobs and schools, and
include payment for necessary accommodations. Dedicated public
housing for the disabled is available and government facilities
built since 1970 must be accessible to the handicapped. There
are, however, no laws prohibiting discrimination against the
disabled in semipublic accommodations such as restaurants or
private schools.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
With an estimated 76 percent of its labor force organized,
Belgium is one of the most unionized countries in the world.
It has a long tradition of democratic trade union elections.
Workers have the right to associate freely and to strike.
Unions striking or protesting government policies or actions
are free from harrassment and persecution. Significant strikes
occurred in 1993 in the education, shipbuilding, and social
welfare sectors. In certain narrowly defined circumstances,
however, such as in the provision of essential public services,
public employees' right to strike is not explicitly
recognized. Public employees may and often do strike (e.g.,
education personnel in 1993). Laws and regulations prohibit
retribution against strikers and union leaders. The Government
effectively enforces these laws and regulations.
Labor unions are independent of the Government but have
important informal links with and influence on several of the
major political parties. Belgian unions are affiliated with
the major international bodies representing labor, such as the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the World
Confederation of Labor.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
The right to organize and bargain collectively is recognized
and exercised freely. Management and unions negotiate every
other year a nationwide collective bargaining agreement
covering the 2.4 million private sector workers, which
establishes the framework for negotiations at plant and branch
level.
The right to due process and judicial review are guaranteed for
all protected activity. The law prohibits antiunion
discrimination against union members and organizers and
provides special protection against termination of contracts of
shop stewards and members of workers' councils and of health
and safety committees. Employers found guilty of antiunion
discrimination are forced to reinstate workers fired for union
activities. Effective mechanisms exist for adjudicating
disputes between labor and management. Belgium maintains a
system of labor tribunals and regular courts which hear
disputes arising from labor contracts, collective bargaining
agreements, and other matters.
Belgium has no export processing zones.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
Forced or compulsory labor is illegal and does not occur.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
The minimum age for employment of children is 15, but schooling
is compulsory until the age of 18. Some categories of youth
between the ages of 15 and 18 are on a part-time work/part-time
study program. Students can also sign summer labor contracts
limited to 30 days. The labor courts effectively monitor
compliance with national laws and standards. Legislation
tightening conditions of child labor in entertainment and
related occupations was adopted in 1992.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
A maximum 40-hour workweek is mandated by law, although many
collective bargaining agreements call for workweeks between 36
and 39 hours.
The minimum wage rates in the private sector are set in
biennial nationwide negotiations between the leading trade
unions and the Belgian Business Federation. After agreement is
reached, a formal collective bargaining agreement is signed by
the National Labor Council and is made mandatory for the entire
private sector by royal decree. In the public sector, the
minimum wage is determined in negotiations between the
Government and the public service unions.
Comprehensive health and safety legislation is supplemented by
collective bargaining agreements on safety issues. The Labor
Ministry implements this legislation through a team of
inspectors and determines whether workers qualify for
disability and medical benefits. Health and safety committees
are mandated by law in companies with more than 50 employees
and by works councils in companies with more than 100
employees. Labor courts effectively monitor compliance with
national laws and standards. (###)
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