A/HRC/22/18 situations where its troops or police forces operate abroad” (para. 5). The Committee recommended that Turkey should consider withdrawing its reservation and declarations, noting that in accordance with the Committee’s general comment No. 31 (2004) on the nature of the general legal obligation imposed on States Parties to the Covenant “the State party should ensure that all persons under its jurisdiction and effective control are afforded the full enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Covenant” (ibid.).6 11. In the report on his mission to Cyprus from 29 March to 5 April 2012 (A/HRC/22/51/Add.1), the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief addressed several practical recommendations to the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, to the de facto authorities in the northern part and to other stakeholders, reiterating the “importance of ensuring that there are no human rights protection gaps and that all persons can effectively enjoy their fundamental rights, including freedom of religion or belief, wherever they live” (para. 73).7 12. The persisting division of Cyprus continues to have consequences for a number of human rights issues on the whole island, including (a) the right to life and the question of missing persons, (b) the principle of non-discrimination, (c) freedom of movement, (d) property rights, (e) freedom of religion and cultural rights, (f) freedom of opinion and expression, and (g) the right to education. In addition, it is important to adopt a gender perspective when negotiating and implementing peace agreements (see below, chap. II, sect. H). A. Right to life and the question of missing persons 13. According to article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Furthermore, article 1 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance provides that any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity, placing the persons subjected thereto outside the protection of the law and inflicting severe suffering on them and their families; any act of enforced disappearance also violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life. 14. The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) 8 continued the exhumation, identification and return of the remains of missing persons. As a result of the intercommunal fighting in 1963 and 1964, as well as the events of July 1974 and afterwards, a total of 1,493 Greek Cypriots and 502 Turkish Cypriots have been officially reported as missing by both communities to the CMP. In July 2012, CMP contracted the International Commission on Missing Persons to perform the typing of the DNA samples from the relatives of missing persons, while further identifications of the remains are carried out by a team consisting of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot geneticists at the Committee’s anthropological laboratory at the United Nations Protected Area in Nicosia together with 6 7 8 6 The Human Rights Committee’s general comment No. 31 (para. 10) provides that: “States Parties are required by article 2, paragraph 1, to respect and to ensure the Covenant rights to all persons who may be within their territory and to all persons subject to their jurisdiction. This means that a State party must respect and ensure the rights laid down in the Covenant to anyone within the power or effective control of that State Party, even if not situated within the territory of the State Party.” See also A/HRC/22/51/Add.1, paras. 74-87. The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus was established in April 1981 by agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities under the auspices of the United Nations. According to its terms of reference the Committee neither attempts to attribute responsibility for the death of any missing persons nor makes findings as to the cause of such death (see www.cmpcyprus.org/media/attachments/CMP/CMP%20docs/Terms_of_Reference_1981.pdf).