6.4 With regard to an alleged violation of article 14, paragraph 1, of the Covenant, the Committee notes that
while the authors have complained about the outcome of the judicial proceedings, they acknowledge that procedural
guarantees were observed in their conduct. The Committee observes that article 14 of the Covenant guarantees
procedural equality but cannot be interpreted as guaranteeing equality of results or absence of error on the part of the
competent tribunal. Thus, this aspect of the authors' communication falls outside the scope of application of article
14 and is, therefore, inadmissible under article 3 of the Option Protocol.
6.5 With regard to an alleged violation of article 26, the Committee recalls that its first sentence stipulates that
"all persons are entitled without discrimination to the equal protection of the law". In this connection, it observes that
this provision should be interpreted to cover not only entitlements which individuals entertain vis-à-vis the State but
also obligations assumed by them pursuant to law. Concerning the State party's argument that BVG is not a State
organ and that the Government cannot influence concrete decisions of industrial insurance boards, the Committee
observes that a State party is not relieved of its obligations under the Covenant when some of its functions are
delegated to other autonomous organs.
6.6 The authors complain about the application to them of legal rules of a compulsory nature, which for
unexplained reasons were allegedly not applied uniformly to some other physiotherapy practices; regardless of
whether the apparent non-application of the compulsory rules on insurance contributions in other cases may have
been right or wrong, it has not been alleged that these rules were incorrectly applied to the authors following the
Central Appeals Board's ruling of 19 April 1983 that part-time physiotherapists were to be deemed employees and
that their employers were liable for social security contributions; furthermore, the Committee is not competent to
examine errors allegedly committed in the application of laws concerning persons other than the authors of a
communication.
6.7 The Committee also recalls that article 26, second sentence, provides that the law of Sates parties should
"guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status". The
Committee notes that the authors have not claimed that their different treatment was attributable to their belonging to
any identifiably distinct category which could have exposed them to discrimination on account of any of the grounds
enumerated or "other status" referred to in article 26 of the Covenant. The Committee, therefore, finds this aspect of
the author's communication to be inadmissible under article 3 of the Optional Protocol.
7. The Human Rights Committee therefore decides:
(a) That the communication is inadmissible;
(b) That this decision shall be communicated to the State party and to the authors.
_______________
Communication No. 275/1988
Submitted by: S. E. (name deleted) on 10 February 1988
68
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