Communication No. 1434/2005
Submitted by: Claude Fillacier (represented by counsel)
Alleged victim: The author
State party: France
Declared inadmissible: 27 March 2006
Subject matter: Reincorporation in the French public
service following transfer from Algeria,
request for compensation
and the “Bône-Assurance” regional mutual insurance
fund for farmers, a body not covered by order
No. 62-401 of 11 April 1962. The author replied in a
letter dated 11 July 1963. The Minister confirmed
his decision by letter dated 29 July 1963.
Procedural issues: Abuse of the right of submission,
State party’s reservation
Substantive issues:
employment
Equal
access
to
2.4 The author endeavoured unsuccessfully to
secure placement from various authorities.
Eventually he lodged with the Administrative Court
in Toulouse applications for placement and
compensation for injury resulting from failure to
place him in the corresponding grade in metropolitan
France. His applications were denied on 27 June
1986. The author then appealed. On 8 June 1990 the
Council of State upheld the ruling of the Toulouse
Administrative Court. On 7 January 2004, the author
brought the matter to the attention of the European
Court of Human Rights, which on 9 November 2004
declared his application to be inadmissible on
grounds of late submission.
public
Articles of the Covenant: 2; 25, para. (c); and 26
Articles of the Optional Protocol: 3 and 5, para. 2 (a)
1.
The author of the communication, dated 24
October 2005, is Claude Fillacier, a French citizen
born at Bône in Algeria on 3 March 1927. He claims
to have been a victim of violations by France of
articles 2, 25 (c) and 26 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He is
represented by counsel, Alain Garay. The Optional
Protocol entered into force for France on 17 May
1984.
The complaint
3.1 The author states that his complaint was not
“examined” by the European Court of Human Rights
because his application was declared inadmissible on
purely procedural grounds. He considers that the
State party’s reservation does not apply to his case.
The author goes so far as to challenge the lawfulness
of the reservation, which he says infringes the
principle of access to justice.
The facts as presented by the author
2.1 Between October 1953 and March 1963, the
author occupied a variety of senior administrative
posts in a number of social agencies in Algeria,
during the period when it was part of France. From
June 1960 onwards, he was simultaneously Deputy
Director of the “Bône Assurances Sociales” regional
mutual social insurance fund for farmers and Deputy
Director of the “Bône-Assurance” regional mutual
insurance fund for farmers.
3.2 Although his communication relates to events
which took place before the State party ratified the
Optional Protocol, the author considers that the
Human Rights Committee becomes competent if,
after the entry into force of the Optional Protocol,
the acts in question continue to produce
consequences which themselves constitute violations
of the Covenant. 1 He also points out that his
application is admissible since the Covenant and the
Optional Protocol lay down no deadline for the
submission of communications.
2.2 The author left Algeria for France in March
1963, following decolonization. On 5 March 1963,
he asked to be placed in an equivalent post in a
similar social insurance agency for farmers in
France. This request was based on article 2 of decree
No. 62-941 of 9 August 1962 relating to conditions
for the placement of permanent French personnel of
the agencies listed in article 3 of order No. 62-401 of
11 April 1962 relating to conditions for the
incorporation in the public service in metropolitan
France of officials and agents of the public service in
Algeria and the Sahara.
3.3 The author considers that the French
authorities failed to guarantee or protect the rights
enumerated in article 25, paragraph (c), taken
together with articles 2 and 26 of the Covenant,
thereby fundamentally infringing his right to
employment and exercising discrimination based on
his circumstances and his nationality. He considers
that he suffered discrimination as compared with
2.3 By letter of 11 May 1963, the French Ministry
of Agriculture informed the author that he could not
be placed because of his “shared” employment
between the “Bône Assurances Sociales” regional
mutual social insurance fund for farmers, which
administered a legally obligatory insurance scheme,
1
See Lovelace v. Canada, communication No. 24/1977,
Views adopted on 30 July 1981, para. 7.3.
45
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