A/HRC/31/21 I. Introduction 1. The present report was prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolutions 4 (XXXI), 4 (XXXII) and 1987/50, and Human Rights Council decision 2/102.1 2. As of 30 November 2015, Cyprus remained divided, with a buffer zone maintained by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). UNFICYP was established pursuant to Security Council resolution 186 (1964) to prevent a recurrence of fighting between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on the island and bring about a return to normal conditions. Its responsibilities were expanded in 1974 following a coup d’état by elements favouring union with Greece and a subsequent military intervention by Turkey, whose troops established control over the northern part of the island. Since the de facto ceasefire in August 1974, UNFICYP has supervised the ceasefire lines, provided humanitarian assistance and maintained a buffer zone between the Turkish and the Turkish Cypriot forces in the north and the Greek Cypriot forces in the south.2 3. In its resolution 2234 (2015), the Security Council welcomed the re-launching of negotiations, the positive momentum and the commitment expressed by the leaders to work tirelessly to reach a comprehensive settlement as soon as possible, in a results-oriented manner as agreed to in the Joint Declaration adopted by the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders on 11 February 2014. However, the Council noted that the negotiations had not yet resulted in an enduring, comprehensive and just settlement based on a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality, as set out in its relevant resolutions. It therefore encouraged the sides to intensify the substantive negotiations on the unresolved core issues interdependently, stressing that the status quo was unsustainable. 4. From 1 December 2014 to 30 November 2015, substantive negotiations on a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus continued under the auspices of the SecretaryGeneral’s good offices, under the leadership of his Special Adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide. Following the assumption of the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community by Mustafa Akıncı on 30 April 2015, negotiations between the two communities in Cyprus were officially relaunched on 15 May 2015 with the facilitation of the Special Adviser on Cyprus during a meeting between the Greek Cypriot leader, Nicos Anastasiades, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr. Akıncı. Since then, the leaders and their negotiators have held numerous meetings and discussed all issues in an interdependent manner. In parallel, meetings of experts on specific subject matters such as property, economy and European Union matters have been convened with the objective of providing expert advice to the ongoing negotiations. The leaders have also announced a number of confidence-building measures aimed at bringing the two communities closer together and have participated in a number of events together on both sides of the island, demonstrating their joint will to reach a settlement of the Cyprus issue. 5. At the end of October 2015, reconfirming their joint vision for a united Cyprus as set out in the Joint Declaration of 11 February 2014, the leaders announced that they would intensify their engagement in the talks and that they would hold a session of meetings throughout the month of November 2015 with the purpose of seeking mutually beneficial solutions on issues where divergences remained. The leaders also reiterated that they each negotiated in the interests of their own communities, as well as taking into consideration the concerns of the other community, in order to reach a settlement that met the best interests of 1 2 2 For an overview of resolutions on the question of human rights in Cyprus, see A/HRC/22/18, paras. 1-4. See http://unficyp.unmissions.org/unficyp-mandate.