B. Views under article 5 (4) of the Optional Protocol Communication No. 757/1997 Submitted by: Mrs. Alzbeta Pezoldova (represented by Lord Lester of Herne Hill, QC) Alleged victim: The author State party: Czech Republic Views: 25 October 2002 Subject matter: Impossibility to obtain access to evidence that could support a property restitution claim in September 1939 and died in Italy in 1950. The author’s father, Jindrich, was arrested by the Germans in 1943 and imprisoned in Buchenwald from where he was released in 1944. He went into exile in the United States and did not return to Czechoslovakia after the war. Procedural issues: Incompatibility ratione temporis Non-exhaustion of domestic remedies Examination by another procedure of international investigation or settlement 2.2 After the Second World War, the family properties were placed under National Administration by the Czechoslovak Government in 1945. Pursuant to the Decrees issued by the Czechoslovak President Edward Benes, No. 12 of 21 June 1945 and No. 108 of 25 October 1945, houses and agricultural property of persons of German and Hungarian ethnic origin were confiscated. These Decrees were applied to the Schwarzenberg estate, on the ground that Schwarzenberg was an ethnic German, notwithstanding the fact that he had always been a loyal Czechoslovak citizen and defended Czechoslovak interests. Substantive issues: Discrimination/equality before the law - Right to an effective remedy Articles of the Covenant: 2; 14; and 26 Articles of the Optional Protocol: 1, 2; 3; 5, paragraph 2 (a) and (b) Finding: Violation (articles 2 and 26) 1. The author of the communication is Mrs. Alzbeta Pezoldova, a Czech citizen residing in Prague, Czech Republic. She claims to be a victim of violations of articles 26, 2 and 14, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by the Czech Republic. She is represented by counsel. The Covenant entered into force for Czechoslovakia in March 1976, the Optional Protocol in June 1991.1 2.3 On 13 August 1947, a general confiscation law No. 142/1947 was enacted, allowing the Government to nationalize, in return for compensation, agricultural land over 50 hectares and industrial enterprises employing more than 200 workers. This law was, however, not applied to the Schwarzenberg estate because on the same day a lex specialis, Law No. 143/1947 (the so-called “Lex Schwarzenberg”), was promulgated, providing for the transfer of ownership of the Schwarzenberg properties to the State without compensation, notwithstanding the fact that the properties had already been confiscated pursuant to Benes’ Decrees 12 and 108.2 The author contends that Law The facts as submitted by the author 2.1 Mrs. Pezoldova was born on 1 October 1947 in Vienna as the daughter and lawful heiress of Dr. Jindrich Schwarzenberg. The author states that the Nazi German Government had confiscated all of her family’s properties in Austria, Germany, and Czechoslovakia, including an estate in Czechoslovakia known as “the Stekl” in 1940. She states that the property was confiscated because her adoptive grandfather Dr. Adolph Schwarzenberg was an opponent of Nazi policies. He left Czechoslovakia 2 The law reads: “1. (1) The ownership of the property of the so-called primogeniture branch of the Schwarzenberg family in Hluboká nad Vlatavou - as far as it is situated in the Czechoslovak Republic - is transferred by law to the county of Bohemia ... 4. The annexation of the property rights as well as all other rights according to paragraph 1 in favor of the 1 The Czech and Slovak Federal Republic ceased to exist on 31 December 1992. On 22 February 1993, the new Czech Republic notified its succession to the Covenant and the Optional Protocol. 51