A/HRC/34/56/Add.1 Church”. Likewise, according to article 2 (2), “the Turkish Community comprises all citizens of the Republic who are of Turkish origin and whose mother tongue is Turkish or who share the Turkish cultural traditions or who are Muslims”.3 28. The Special Rapporteur concurs with other international and European mechanisms, which consider the rigid classification of all citizens into members of either the Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot “communities” as problematic and not in line with human rights standards (see CERD/C/CYP/CO/17-22, para. 14, and CCPR/C/CYP/CO/4, para. 24).4 29. Indeed, article 2 (3) of the Constitution states that all Cypriot citizens, including those from ethnic, linguistic, cultural or religious origins other than the two dominant ones, have to associate themselves formally with one of them. Moreover, other religious groups must also opt collectively to associate themselves with one of the two recognized “communities”. Faced with these limited choices, the Armenian Orthodox, the Maronite Catholic and the Roman Catholic (“Latin”) Churches in Cyprus have opted to belong to the Greek community (see A/HRC/22/51/Add.1, paras. 14-15).5 30. This narrow framework imposes choices about cultural identity and membership in a specific group on people in violation of their cultural rights, in particular the rights of everyone to choose his or her own identity, to identify or not with one or several groups and to change that choice, 6 and to participate or not participate in a given group (see A/HRC/14/36, paras. 10 and 25).7 31. Furthermore, such classification risks reducing those not in the categories in question to secondary status and creates a sense of inequality. 8 It is insufficient to characterize the complexity and diversity of Cyprus society, which also includes a mosaic of historic minorities and more newly arrived persons, such as Ahmadis, Alevis, Armenians, Buddhists, Copts, ethnic Greeks from the Black Sea region, Kurds, Latins, Maronites, Roma, Turkish nationals, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers of many nationalities. However, that great diversity is rarely adequately reflected in policies, nor is there space for that lived cultural complexity in the 1960 constitutional framework. There are also many other identities that are cross-cutting, including women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons, persons with disabilities, secularists, people of mixed identities and people who do not wish to identify solely in terms of ethno-religious identity. 32. A specific concern relates to the choice given to women in such matters. Article 2 (7) of the Constitution states that married women shall belong to the “community” to which their husbands belong and that children under the age of 21 who are not married shall belong to the “community” to which their fathers belong. Such a provision clearly violates the right not to be discriminated against based on sex, as enshrined in articles 2 and 3 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 33. The ongoing peace talks offer an opportunity for discussing how to open spaces for the recognition of diversity and for the participation of all in society without discrimination. As the Special Rapporteur has previously noted, it is important to query the precise meaning of terms such as “community”, which are frequently employed without definition, and the routine presumption of the primordial and homogeneous nature of community identities. What may be considered as central in terms of identity from the point of view of “community” leaders may not coincide with the choices and realities of individuals (see A/HRC/31/59, paras. 11-18). 3 4 5 6 7 8 See the discussion of the term “community” and some of its implications for cultural rights in A/HRC/31/59, paras. 11-18. The term is used here because it is employed in the 1960 Constitution. See also Council of Europe Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, “Fourth opinion on Cyprus”, March 2015, paras. 11-15. See also Nikolas Kyriakou and Nurcan Kaya, “Minority rights: solutions to the Cyprus conflict”, Minority Rights Group International, 2011. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 21 (2009) on the right of everyone to take part in cultural life, para. 15 (a). See also Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, “Fourth opinion on Cyprus”, para. 12. Ibid., para. 4. 7