A/HRC/13/24 II. Human rights concerns 6. The persisting division of Cyprus continues to have consequences in relation to a number of human rights issues on the whole island, including freedom of movement, human rights pertaining to the question of missing persons, property rights, discrimination, freedom of religion, the right to education and economic rights. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its concluding observations following consideration of the fourth and fifth periodic reports of Cyprus, viewed the continuous partition as a major difficulty hindering the ability of the State party to ensure the implementation of the Covenant throughout the country.6 The Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council reviewed the human rights situation in Cyprus in the context of its universal periodic review (UPR) process, at its sixth session in November 2009. The report of the Working Group was adopted on 4 December 2009 and contains 70 specific recommendations made by Member States on all aspects of the human rights situation in Cyprus.7 Freedom of movement 7. With regard to freedom of movement, UNFICYP recorded approximately 873,700 crossings through the buffer zone during the period from November 2008 to May 2009 and approximately 928,200 in the period from May to November 2009.8 On the issue of returns, the requests made by 11 Greek Cypriot and 44 Maronite internally displaced and refugee families wanting to return to, and permanently reside in, the north are still pending, due to differences over eligibility criteria for permanent returns.9 In June 2009 an agreement was reached to open a seventh crossing point between the communities and through the buffer zone to the north-west of the island, linking the villages of Limnitis/Yeşilirmak in the north, and Kato Pyrgos in the south.10 Human rights pertaining to the question of missing persons 8. The Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) continued the exhumation, identification and return of the remains of missing persons. By December 2009, the remains of 585 individuals had been exhumed on both sides of the buffer zone by the Committee’s bicommunal teams of archaeologists; the remains of 352 missing persons had undergone examination at the Committee’s bicommunal anthropological laboratory in the United Nations Protected Area in Nicosia; and the remains of 196 individuals had been returned to their respective families.11 In March 2009, the CMP was invited by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg to present its activities. The Ministers’ Deputies noted with great interest the exchange of views with members of the CMP, considered that it was crucial that the current work of the CMP should continue and 6 7 8 9 10 11 GE.10-11644 E/C.12/CYP/CO/5, para. 8. The Government of Cyprus, in its comments on the concluding observations emphasized that “the division of the country […] is not merely ‘a major difficulty which hinders the ability of the State party to ensure the implementation of the Covenant throughout the country’ but also generates new obstacles to its effective implementation”. The Government noted in this regard that approximately 99 per cent of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers arrive in the Government-controlled area through the northern part of the island (E/C.12/CYP/CO/5/Add.1, paras. 4 and 5). A/HRC/13/7. S/2009/248, para. 26 and S/2009/609, para. 12. S/2009/609, para. 17. S/2009/610, para. 16. Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus, Quick Statistics, 6 December 2009 update, available on the website of the Committee at www.cmp-cyprus.org. 3