CYPRUS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT – PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION
OF JUDGE FUAD
115
15. I was not satisfied that the applicant Government had established
that Turkey was responsible for the alleged violations relied upon in relation
to Greek-Cypriot owners of property.
16. I am also not able to agree with the decision of the majority of my
colleagues regarding the alleged violations which relate to Greek-Cypriot
missing persons and their relatives. Like the Commission, the majority has
concluded that the facts did not disclose a substantive violation of Article 2
since the evidence was insufficient to establish Turkey's responsibility for
the deaths of any of the missing persons. The majority also accepted the
finding of the Commission that nothing in the evidence supported the
assumption that any of the missing persons were still in Turkish custody
during the relevant period in conditions which offended Article 4: thus a
breach of that Article had not been established.
17. However, the majority decided that a continuing violation of
Article 5 had been shown because the Turkish authorities had failed to
conduct an effective investigation into the fate of missing persons in respect
of whom there was an arguable claim that they were in Turkish custody at
the time of their disappearance. They agreed with the Commission that these
obligations had not been discharged through Turkey's contribution to the
investigatory work of the Committee on Missing Persons (“CMP”).
18. Further, they held that since Turkey had failed to make the necessary
investigations and thus had given no information about the fate of the
missing persons, their relatives had been subjected to inhuman treatment of
the kind proscribed by Article 3.
19. A great deal of material was before the Commission and the Court
about the formation, responsibilities and work of the CMP. A full summary
of all this is in the Commission's report. The UN General Assembly called
for the establishment of an investigatory body to resolve the cases of
missing persons from both communities. The General Assembly requested
the Secretary-General to support the establishment of such a body with the
participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (“ICRC”)
“which would be in a position to function impartially, effectively and
speedily so as to resolve the problem without undue delay”.
20. Eventually it was decided that the CMP should comprise three
members: representatives from the Greek and the Turkish side and a
representative of the Secretary-General nominated by the ICRC. What
seems clear is that the United Nations, for obvious reasons, envisaged a
body that would perform its sad and difficult task objectively and without
bias. The UN's call was met by the composition of the CMP. Very wisely, if
I may say so, the ICRC was to be involved so that its resources and wide
experience in the often heartbreaking task involved could be called upon.
21. Once the CMP was set up, I have seen nothing to suggest that the
Secretary-General, the ICRC or any other organisation such as the UN
Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (Geneva)