6
CYPRUS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT
16. United Nations peacekeeping forces (“UNFICYP”) maintain a
buffer-zone. A number of political initiatives have been taken at the level of
the United Nations aimed at settling the Cyprus problem on the basis of
institutional arrangements acceptable to both sides. To this end, intercommunal talks have been sponsored by the Secretary-General of the
United Nations acting under the direction of the Security Council. In this
connection, the respondent Government maintain that the Turkish-Cypriot
authorities in northern Cyprus have pursued the talks on the basis of what
they consider to be already agreed principles of bi-zonality and bicommunality within the framework of a federal constitution. Support for
this basis of negotiation is found in the UN Secretary-General's Set of Ideas
of 15 July 1992 and the UN Security Council resolutions of 26 August 1992
and 25 November 1992 confirming that a federal solution sought by both
sides will be “bi-communal” and “bi-zonal”.
Furthermore, and of relevance to the instant application, in 1981 the
United Nations Committee on Missing Persons (“CMP”) was set up to
“look into cases of persons reported missing in the inter-communal fighting
as well as in the events of July 1974 and afterwards” and “to draw up
comprehensive lists of missing persons of both communities, specifying as
appropriate whether they are still alive or dead, and in the latter case
approximate times of death”. The CMP has not yet completed its
investigations.
B. The previous inter-State applications
17. The events of July and August 1974 and their aftermath gave rise to
three previous applications by the applicant Government against the
respondent State under former Article 24 of the Convention. The first
(no. 6780/74) and second (no. 6950/75) applications were joined by the
Commission and led to the adoption on 10 July 1976 of a report under
former Article 31 of the Convention (“the 1976 report”) in which the
Commission expressed the opinion that the respondent State had violated
Articles 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and 14 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol
No. 1. On 20 January 1979 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of
Europe in turn adopted, with reference to an earlier decision of 21 October
1977, Resolution DH (79) 1 in which it expressed, inter alia, the conviction
that “the enduring protection of human rights in Cyprus can only be brought
about through the re-establishment of peace and confidence between the two
communities; and that inter-communal talks constitute the appropriate
framework for reaching a solution of the dispute”. In its resolution the
Committee of Ministers strongly urged the parties to resume the talks under
the auspices of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in order to agree
upon solutions on all aspects of the dispute (see paragraph 16 above). The