A/HRC/43/22 being of their communities, including with respect to impunity for crimes (S/2019/562, para. 61). The case of Güzelyurtlu and Others v. Cyprus and Turkey, decided by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights on 29 January 2019, illustrates the consequences of the division on the right to life.7 In that case, the Court found that the two respondent States had an obligation to cooperate with each other in a murder investigation, under the procedural aspect of the obligation to respect the right to life enshrined in article 2 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the European Convention on Human Rights). 8 The Court noted that attempts by Cyprus to obtain the surrender of the suspects from the north through UNFICYP had proved unsuccessful and that Cyprus had no formal diplomatic relations with Turkey but had delivered extradition requests through the Turkish embassy in Athens. In the circumstances, the Court considered that Cyprus had done all that could have been reasonably expected. It also noted that it was not unreasonable for Cyprus to have refused to hand over the whole investigation file, as this would have amounted in substance “to a transfer of the criminal case by Cyprus to the ‘TRNC’ [Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus] courts, and Cyprus would thereby be waiving its criminal jurisdiction over a murder committed in its controlled area in favour of the courts of an unrecognised entity set up within its territory”.9 On the other hand, the Court found that Turkey had breached its duty to cooperate under the procedural aspect of the right to life, for failing to provide a reasoned reply to the extradition requests by Cyprus.10 18. As a result of the intercommunal fighting of 1963 and 1964, and the events of July 1974 and thereafter, 1,510 Greek Cypriots and 492 Turkish Cypriots have been officially reported as missing by both communities to the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus. During the reporting period, the Committee continued its bicommunal project on the exhumation, identification and return of the remains of missing persons. As at 30 November 2019, it had exhumed the remains of 1,230 individuals on both sides of the island and had been able to identify 965 missing individuals whose remains were returned to their respective families, including 51 during the reporting period. 19. In accordance with the 2016–2018 agreement between the Committee and the Turkish authorities, the Committee carried out excavations in 30 military areas in the northern part of Cyprus, thus far recovering the remains of 37 presumed missing persons. In June 2019, Turkey granted the Committee access to 30 additional military areas, of which 5 were to be excavated in December 2019. 20. In order to obtain additional information on possible burial sites, the Committee’s archives research team conducted research visits to United Nations headquarters in New York in July, August and October 2019, and completed its review of the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva in September 2019. 21. In April 2019, the Committee published a joint study with ICRC, based on interviews with 170 Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot family members who had not yet received the remains of their loved ones. The study highlighted persistent needs among this category of families, including the need to know the fate and whereabouts of missing relatives, need for acknowledgement, psychological and psychosocial needs, and economic and administrative needs. The Committee delivered the study to the authorities in Cyprus with a request to address such ongoing needs.11 In October 2019, in Nicosia, the Committee co-organized with ICRC an international expert workshop aimed at improving the response of authorities and civil society dealing with the issue of missing persons. 22. In its resolution 2483 (2019), the Security Council commended the work of the Committee on Missing Persons and called upon all parties expeditiously to enhance their 7 8 9 10 11 Grand Chamber judgment, application No. 36925/07. Ibid., para. 239. Ibid., para. 253. Ibid., paras. 262–266. Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus and ICRC, “Needs of families of missing persons in Cyprus” (April 2019). 5