UN HRC moves towards annulment of the citizenship requirement for property restitution, Klein, 1847/2008

No doubt, this is the most common kind of property litigations in Eastern Europe. On 08/12/2011 the UN Human Rights Committee found a violation of Article 26 (non-discrimination) of the Covenant of Civil and Political Rights by the Czech Republic, since they had forbade foreign citizens restitution of their property lost during the Soviet era. Miroslav and Eva Klain lost their Czechoslovak citizenship in 1978 due to the naturalisation in the USA. Their Czech property was confiscated but could be restituted on the condition of obtaining the Czech nationality.


The Czech Government argued that citizenship is a "reasonable and objective" criterion (§ 4.4) but the judges replied that it is "arbitrary and discriminatory", because individuals who are equally victims of prior State confiscations find themselves in completely different situations on the mere ground of the passport.

The case is also important, since the Committee has explained (§ 7.6) that the judicial deadline to file a communication is 5 years after the final internal instance, or 3 years after another mechanism of international settlement (where applicable).