Communication
2701/2015
Submission: 2015.09.25
View Adopted: 2019.07.26
The authors are five Italian nationals and one German national, whom claim that by forcing them to exchange their Greek government bonds for less valuable securities in the context of national debt restructuring, Greece is violating their rights under articles 2(3) of the Covenant, in conjunction with article 14, 4, and 26.
In 2012, the conditions governing the holding of government bonds were amended due to the fact that the Greek credit rating was downgraded to 'junk bond' status, indicating a high risk of default. As minority shareholders, the were not invited to participate in negotiations around debt restructuring, and as a consequence, were bound by the agreement of majority shareholders to exchange bonds for new bonds with a 53.5% lower yeild rate.
The Committee is of the view that, by not filing an application for annulment before the Council of State when they were entitled to do so, the authors failed to exhaust available domestic remedies. The Committee therefore considers that the communication is inadmissible pursuant to article 5 (2) (b) of the Optional Protocol.