Robert Brok v. Czech Republic

October-2 November 2001

The original author of the communication dated 23 December 1996, Robert Brok, was a Czech citizen, born in September 1916. When he passed away on 17 September 1997, his wife Dagmar Brokova maintained his communication. It is claimed that the Czech Republic has violated articles 6, 9, 14 (1), 26 and 27 of the Covenant. The Optional Protocol entered into force for the Czech Republic on 12 June 1991. The author is not represented by counsel.

Robert Brok’s parents owned a house in the centre of Prague since 1927 (hereinafter called the property). During 1940 and 1941, the German authorities confiscated their property with retroactive effect to 16 March 1939, because the owners were Jewish. The property was then sold to the company Matador on 7 January 1942. The author himself, was deported by the Nazis, and returned to Prague on 16 May 1945, after having been released from a concentration camp. He was subsequently hospitalized until October 1945.

After the end of the war, on 19 May 1945, President Benes’ Decree No. 5/1945 declared null and void all property transactions effected under pressure of the occupation regime on the basis of racial or political persecution. National administration was imposed on all enemy assets. This included the author’s parents’ property pursuant to a decision taken by the Ministry of Industry on 2 August 1945. However, February 1946, the Ministry of Industry annulled that decision. It also annulled the prior property confiscation and transfers, and the author’s parents were reinstated as the rightful owners, in accordance with Benes Decree No. 5/1945.

However, the company Matador, which had been nationalized on 27 October 1945, appealed against this decision. On 7 August 1946, the Land Court in Prague annulled the return of the property to the author’s parents and declared Matador to be the rightful owner. On 31 January 1947, the Supreme Court confirmed this decision. he Court found that since the company with all its possessions had been nationalized in accordance with Benes Decree No. 100/1945 of 24 October 1945, and since national property was excluded from the application of Benes Decree No. 5/1945, the Ministry had wrongfully restored the author’s parents as the rightful owners.

he author applied for restitution under Act No. 87/1991 amended Act No. 116/1994. The said law provides restitution or compensation to victims of illegal confiscation carried out for political reasons during the Communist regime. he law also restitution or compensation to victims of racial persecution during the Second World War, who have an entitlement by virtue of Decree No. 5/1945. The courts (District Court decision 26 C 49/95 of 20 November 1995 and Prague City Court decision 13 Co 34/94-29 of 28 February 1996), however, rejected the author’s claim.

he author filed a complaint that his right to property had been violated. Thallows an individual to file a complaint to the Constitutional Court if the public authority has violated the claimant’s fundamental rights guaranteed by a constitutional law or by an international treaty the right to property.

the Constitutional Court invoked the question on its own motion and concluded that “the legal proceedings were correctly and all the legal regulations have been safeguarded”. he Constitutional Court rejected the author’s on 12 September 1996.

The author’s widow further claims that since the initial expropriations happened as part of genocide, the property should be restored regardless of the positive law in the Czech Republic. The author points to other European countries where confiscated Jewish properties are restituted to the rightful owners or to Jewish organizations if the owners could not be identified. Article 6 of the Covenant refers to obligations that arise from genocide. In the authors’ opinion, the provision should not be limited to obligations arising from complainants killed in genocide, but also to those, like Robert Brok, who survived genocide. The refusal to restitute property thereby constitutes violation of article 6 of the Covenant.

The Czech Republic has, according to the author’s widow, systematically refused to return Jewish properties. She claims that since the Nazi expropriation targeted the Jewish community as a whole, the Czech Republic’s policy of non-restitution also affects the whole group. As a result and for the reason of lacking economical basis, the Jewish community has not had the same opportunity to maintain its cultural life as others, and the Czech Republic has thereby violated their right under article 27.

By note verbale of 16 October 2000, the State party objects to the admissibility of the communication. The grounds for the State party’s objections are the following: (1) It argues that the author invoked the right to own property in the domestic procedure, and not the rights covered by the Covenanthus the domestic remedies for Covenant