To our regret we cannot follow the Committee's
decision that the communication is also inadmissible as far
as the author claims that he is a victim of a violation of
article 26 of the Covenant, because the Law No. 87/1991
would deliberately discriminate against him for ethnical
reasons (See para. 3.4). For the reasons given in our
Individual Opinion in Communication No. 643/1995
(Drobek v. Slovakia), we think that the Committee should
have declared the communication admissible in this regard.
APPENDIX
Individual opinion submitted by Ms. Cecilia Meddina
Quiroga and Mr. Eckart Klein pursuant to rule 94,
paragraph 3, of the Committee’s rules of procedure,
concerning the Committee’s decision on
communication No. 669/1995,
Gerhard Malik v. Czech Republic
Communication No. 670/1995
Submitted by: Mr. Rüdiger Schlosser [represented by counsel]
Alleged victim: The author
State party: Czech Republic
Declared inadmissible: 21 October 1998 (sixty-fourth session)
October 1938, the territory became part of Germany
by virtue of the Munich Agreement, and at the end
of the Second World War in May 1945 it was
restored to Czechoslovakia. Since 1 January 1993 it
forms part of the Czech Republic.
Subject
matter:
Discriminatory
effect
of
expropriation decrees adopted in 1945 in their
application to former residents of the former
Czechoslovakia
Procedural issues: Failure to substantiate claim Non-exhaustion of domestic remedies
2.2 The author states that in 1945 he as well as his
parents were deprived of Czechoslovak citizenship
by virtue of the Benes Decree No. 33 of 2 August
1945 on the Determination of Czechoslovak
citizenship of persons belonging to the German and
Hungarian Ethnic Groups.
Substantive issues: Equality before the courts Principle of non-discrimination
Articles of the Covenant: 12 (4), 14, 26 and 27
Articles of the Optional Protocol: 2 and 5 (2) (b)
2.3 Mr. Schlosser and his family were subjected
to collective exile, together with other members of
the German ethnic group of Aussig, who were
expelled to Saxonia in the then Soviet occupation
zone of Germany on 20 July 1945. He claims that
this expulsion was in violation of international law,
since it was based on ethnic and linguistic
discrimination. Mr. Schlosser's father Franz, who
died in 1967, was an antifascist and member of the
Social Democratic party. He had been a businessman
in the construction industry and owned two houses
and several pieces of real estate, which were
confiscated by virtue of Benes Decrees No. 12/1945
of 21 June 1945 and No. 108/1945 of 25 October
1945. The author submits the text of the decrees and
a copy of the relevant pages from the registry book
of Chabarovice, Usti nad Labem, which show that
the property was confiscated pursuant to the Benes
Decrees.
1.
The author of the communication is Rüdiger
Schlosser, a German citizen residing in Tretow,
Germany (Province of Brandenburg, former German
Democratic Republic). Mr. Schlosser claims to be a
victim of violations of articles 12, 14, 26 and 27 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights by the Czech Republic. He is represented by
Leewog and Grones, a law firm in Mayen, Germany.
The Covenant entered into force for Czechoslovakia
on 23 March 1976, the Optional Protocol on 12 June
1991. The Czech and Slovak Federal Republic
ceased to exist on 31 December 1992. On
22 February 1993, the Czech Republic notified its
succession to the Covenant and the Optional
Protocol.
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1 Mr. Schlosser was born a citizen of
Czechoslovakia on 7 June 1932 in Aussig (today
Usti nad Labem), in what was then known as
Sudetenland. This territory had been part of the
Austrian Empire until November 1918, when it
became part of the new State of Czechoslovakia. In
The complaint
3.1 The author complains of a continued violation
of his rights to enter his own country, to equality
23
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents