CCPR/C/118/D/2242/2013 loans to all the families and then pool the money to relocate the settlement as a whole, as had successfully been done in other areas of Greece.41 The authors therefore conclude that their allegations under articles 7, 17 and 23, read alone or in conjunction with article 2 of the Covenant, are substantiated. 7.7 Regarding article 26, the authors submit that the State party did not provide any examples to counter their argument that only Roma have been forced to live in inhuman conditions for more than 12 years, due to the authorities’ delay in providing them with adequate housing. The authorities want to send them to an uninhabitable mountaintop without consulting them, and without replying to the complaints they have made to the competent authorities. The authorities give preferential treatment to other ethnically or socially vulnerable groups, while the Roma are consistently discriminated against. In this connection, the authors cite measures taken in relation to victims of earthquakes and to Greek repatriates from the former Soviet Union. Regarding the first group, they point out that the procedures for obtaining relocation are much more expeditious than those for the relocation of Roma. The fact that the central administration is in charge of it, rather than the local authorities which are more sensitive to reactions from the local population, means that the proceedings applicable to the victims of earthquakes are more effective. In relation to the second group, they indicate that one law regulates the repatriation and relocation of Greeks from the former Soviet Union, whereas multiple laws apply to the relocation of Roma. In addition, repatriates benefit from a serial of measures in terms of housing, including rental subsidies, building permits and free-of-charge plots of land, while the Roma do not, as well as from a much more advantageous loan scheme. 42 7.8 As regards the admissibility of the communication, the authors reiterate that the second author is mandated by the statutes of the association to represent all its members, and that the Roma inhabitants of the Halandri settlement collectively submitted their complaint to the Committee through their “chief”. 43 They also reiterate that no further remedies are available to them, and note that the State party did not comment on the lack of a reply to their request of 30 April 2013 to the Athens First Instance Prosecutor for the Environment. Regarding the protection of the property rights of the owners of the land where the settlement is located, the authors submit that they have already been compensated. 7.9 On 26 September, 16 October, 26 November and 18 December 2014, the authors submitted further comments to the Committee. They claim that on 25 September 2014, 12 residents of the settlement were informed that their homes would be demolished on 30 September 2014. On that date, a demolition operation was launched, but it was cancelled due to the resistance of the Roma community and solidarity groups. On 1 October, following negotiations with the local authorities, five abandoned dwellings were demolished and the Secretary-General of the Decentralized Administration of Attica granted the Municipality of Halandri six months to relocate the families living in the 61 remaining dwellings. During this period, legal action was taken on several occasions, which included motions of annulment against the second relocation decision dated 18 October 2013, which were submitted to the Council of State by the Megara and Mandra municipalities and by the authors. 44 The authors also submit to the Committee the 41 42 43 44 10 They indicate that the Ombudsman and the Independent Expert on minority issues have criticized the loan scheme. See A/HRC/10/11/Add.3. The authors provide a submission made by INTERIGHTS in a case before the European Committee of Social Rights. No further information has been provided on the case before the European Committee. They quote the Committee’s Views on Lubicon Lake Band v. Canada. All were pending at the time that the comments were submitted.