1 Office of the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process Under the Auspices of the Embassy of Sweden Nicosia- Cyprus 6th Session of the Forum on Minority Issues-Palais des Nations, Geneva-Switzerland “Beyond freedom of religion or belief: guaranteeing the rights of religious minorities” 25-27 November, 2013 Check against Delivery Inter-religious dialogue and the Cyprus peace process Salpy Eskidjian Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am honored to be at this esteemed forum to share our experiences from Cyprus working on religious freedom and inter-religious dialogue. When we started looking at the role of religion in the Cyprus conflict, it was shocking to find out that there was total absence of communication between the religious leaders of the two communities for over 5 decades. Even worse was to note its negative impact on human rights, peace and reconciliation. No one, willing to invest time or money, believed that religion could play a positive role in the conflict even in Cyprus. Religion was labelled as conservative, obstructionist, nationalist and ended up as the “unpopular minority” on the peace block. We appreciate the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief in his mission report where he stressed that projects which may contribute to improving the relations between different religious communities should be further strengthened. In this regard I want to express my sincere appreciation to the Swedish Ambassadors in Cyprus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden and the current President and Board of the Religious Social Democrats of Sweden (Tro och Solidaritet) and initially also the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) for believing in the need for interreligious communication for human rights and peace in Cyprus and their active support in our efforts. Without them and in particular the religious leaders HB