COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS TAKES UP REPORT OF CYPRUS

AFTERNOON
HR/ESC/98/28
18 November 1998



Government Delegation Queried on Status of
Human Rights Institution, Situation of Refugees
from Turkish-Occupied Territory


The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights began consideration this afternoon of the third periodic report of Cyprus, questioning Government representatives about the legal status and authority of a newly set-up National Institution for Human Rights and about anti-discrimination efforts, equality of men and women, employment, and family issues.

Introducing the report, Petros Eftychiou, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the United Nations Office at Geneva, remarked that Turkish occupation since 1974 of 37 per cent of the country had prevented the Government from implementing provisions of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights there and had created related problems for refugees from the region.

Eleni Loizidou, Counsel of the Republic of Cyprus, reported, among other recent developments, new prison legislation and passage of a law to prevent violence within the family. She added that a law was being developed to protect "vulnerable persons" and to prohibit sexual exploitation and said in response to questions that one purpose of the measure was to protect "foreign artists". Committee members noted there were widespread reports of abuse of foreign women working in cabarets or as prostitutes.

As one of 137 States parties to the Covenant, Cyprus must provide periodic reports to the Committee on efforts to put the treaty into effect.

In addition to Ambassador Eftychiou and Mrs. Loizidou, the Cypriot delegation included Loulla Theodorou, Director of Social and Welfare Services of the Ministry of Labour and Social Issues; and Tryphon Pneumaticos, Chief Education Officer of the Department of Higher and Tertiary Education.

At the beginning of the meeting, a representative of the International Labour Office presented a report to the Committee containing ILO expert comments related to economic, social and cultural rights, and noting that several countries to appear before the Committee had had cases brought against them before ILO panels relating to such matters as the right to strike.

Speaking at the meeting were Committee members Eibe Reidel; Walid M. Sa’di; Maria de los Angeles Jimenez Butragueno; Jaime Marchan Romero; Virginia Bonoan-Dandan; Nutan Thapalia; Dumitru Ceausu; Ade Adekuoye; Abdessatar Grissa; Javier Wimer Zambrano; and Valeri I. Kouznetsov.

The Committee will reconvene in public session at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, 18 November, following a brief private meeting, to continue review of the report of Cyprus.

Third Periodic Report of Cyprus

The report (E/1994/104/Add.12) reviews application of the Covenant on an article-by-article basis. The introduction notes, "most of the economic, social and cultural rights embodied in Part II of the International Covenant... are adequately safeguarded by the Constitution of Cyprus, Part II, on Fundamental Rights and Liberties." The body of the report cites, among other things, a strategic development plan on employment whose objectives include maintenance of industrial peace; maintenance of conditions of full employment; amelioration of qualitative imbalances in the labour market; increase in the supply of labour to resolve shortages, mainly through the increase of female participation rates and the encouragement of the return of Cypriot expatriates. Other topics reviewed are trade-union rights; maternity benefits and old-age pensions; and the situation of vulnerable groups, for which the Government identifies persons exposed to environmental pollution and occupational health and safety, remarking that "the rapid industrialization of Cyprus has created a series of problems related to the working environment with a high incidence of injury or disease." Supplementary information provided in a separate document includes, among other things, news of the recent establishment of a National Institute for Human Rights and of consideration of a bill "for the protection of vulnerable persons from sexual and other exploitation."

Introduction of Report

PETROS EFTYCHIOU, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said, among other things, that since achieving independence the country had made great progress toward economic prosperity and respect for human rights but was faced with the continuing challenge of coping with problems resulting from the Turkish invasion of 1974; the effects had been noted on numerous occasions, but merited repeating: 37 per cent of the territory of Cyprus remained under Turkish military occupation; almost 200,000 Greek Cypriots, one-third of Cyprus's population, had been forcibly evicted from their homes, properties, and livelihood; thousands had been killed and 1,619 were still missing; 100,000 colonists from Turkey had been settled in the occupied area, taking over refugees' property; and irreparable damage had been done to the country's cultural heritage, which was based on thousands of years of civilization. Information provided in the report referred only to the territory under Government control, Mr. Eftychiou said, as it could not ensure implementation of the provisions of the Covenant in the portion of the country under Turkish occupation.

ELENI LOIZIDOU, Counsel of the Republic of Cyprus, said the report had been drafted by a committee of senior officials from the Ministries of foreign affairs, health, justice and public order, education and culture, labour and social insurance, and from the offices of the attorney general and ombudsman. Among other recent developments, she said, were establishment of a National Institution for Human Rights, an independent body whose members were appointed from the public and private sectors; the members were not under the authority of any Government agency and the Institution had two committees, one of Government officials whose task was to prepare reports submitted under various international conventions and to recommend amendments to municipal law to bring it into conformity with such conventions; the second was composed of members of the private sector and the House of Representatives which supplied information on human rights, helped form public opinion on human rights, advised the Government on human-r
ights matters, and examined complaints of human-rights violations, among other duties. A law for the protection of vulnerable persons from sexual exploitation was under discussion, Mrs. Loizidou said, and contained provisions prohibiting the sale of children, sexual exploitation of women and children, mutilation of women, use of children for pornography, the production, display, or transmission of such productions, and the exploitation of foreign artists. New legislation regarding prisons had been made to improve treatment of foreign prisoners, she said, and a law on prevention of violence within the family had been passed in June 1994.

Discussion

Questions asked by Committee members followed up on a list of queries prepared in advance and to which the Republic of Cyprus had provided written replies, and covered the general subjects of basic provisions of the Covenant; non-discrimination efforts; equal rights of men and women; right to work and working conditions; and protection of and assistance to families.

Committee members asked, among other things, why the new human-rights institution had two committees, with Government and private-sector members kept separate; how the two committees would work together; if promotion of the Covenant in the country had led to changes in Government policies in economics and other sectors; what was being done to provide the rights contained in the Covenant to refugees from the occupied portion of the country; why the human-rights body had been formed by decision of the Council of Ministers and not by legislation; if the human-rights body was truly independent and if it had such a status; if it had any authority over the Government; and if there were potential areas of conflict between the human-rights institution and the ombudsman.

The experts also asked under what conditions homosexuality was a crime; why only children of male refugees were treated as displaced children, as opposed to children of displaced women; if there was "quiet discrimination" against women in the economic sector based on patriarchal attitudes, as well as in education and religious life, and what the Government was doing about the matter; if foreign workers, especially young women from eastern Europe, employed in cabarets or as prostitutes, were sufficiently protected and if there was an extensive problem, as reported from some sources, concerning their rights, treatment, and freedom to leave the island before their contracts were over, and if, as reported, their employers took away their passports; if anything was being done to deal with a widely reported problem involving maltreatment of domestic servants from south and east Asia; and if women had the same rights as men in laws related to the family.

Ambassador Eftychiou said, among other things, that the portion of the country that was occupied in 1974 had formerly accounted for some 70 per cent of Cyprus's GNP -- in other words, the refugees were the "haves" who fled to the shelter of the have-nots, in the part of the country that had represented 30 per cent of the GNP. Those who fled were helped by a number of Government programmes; in addition, some 20,000 Greek Cypriots were not able to reach Government-controlled regions; those 20,000 left behind had since been reduced to about 500, as the policies employed by the occupation regime were so brutal that they were essentially forced to leave; the Government still tried to honour its obligations to Turkish Cypriots living in the occupied region; for example, those on social security still received their payments, brought to them by neutral third parties; Turkish Cypriots also received free electricity and water supply in many cases; however, effectively the Government had very little ability to implement the Covenant in the Turkish-occupied areas.

LOULLA THEODOROU, Director of Social and Welfare Services of Cyprus, said, among other things, that persons over 65 made up 11 per cent of Cyprus's population and were disproportionately affected by the Turkish occupation because of damage caused to family unity; and that generally the elderly had been cared for by their extended families, but after the 1974 invasion the Government had begun to provide a number of services to elderly isolated from their families, such as home care, day care, and delivery of meals.

Mrs. Loizidou said, among other things, that the way the committees of the National Institute for Human Rights would operate would be decided by the committees themselves -- procedures and methods were still being developed; that it had been suggested that Turkish Cypriots be invited to participate in the committees; that two committees had been formed apparently because it was felt that Government representatives would bear the main burden of administrative work, such as preparation of reports under international human-rights conventions, but that such reports would be approved by all members of the Institution; that Cyprus had ratified all ILO conventions related to economic matters and all human-rights conventions of international organizations and that under Cypriot law provisions of such conventions could be invoked directly before the courts; that the reason the human-rights institution was established by the Council of Ministers rather than by law was that the Government wanted to establish it as soon as possible, and setting it up through the legislature would have taken much longer; that it was the Government's intention to have legislation passed authorizing the institution as well; that the body's main purpose would be to field complaints of human-rights violations; that at the moment the decisions of the institution were only advisory, rather than binding, but that because its membership included non-governmental organizations it was clear that its opinions could exercise a great deal of influence on the Government; that the country's post of ombudsman had existed for a number of years and that the ombudsman was independent and could not be removed by the Government.

Mrs. Loizidou added that the Government was aware that there were some problems of exploitation of "vulnerable people", including workers in cabarets, and it was preparing a bill to give them more legal protection; that if a refugee child had a Cypriot mother he could still become a Cypriot citizen; and that the Ministry of Labour had been authorized to receive complaints of maltreatment from domestic workers.