Cyprus' government respons with regard to Protection of minorities
On 09.10.2010 the Advisory Committee on FCNM released its Third Opinion on Cyprus, adopted on 19.03.2010, following the submission of the comments from the Cypriot government on the previous day. The Opinion greets the extension of the protection provided by the Convention to the Cypriot Roma as a positive development but regretted the lack of progress in issues regarding the recognised minorities, including the affiliation to the Greek Cypriot community, the obligatory voting by the members of the minorities of their observant representative in Parliament, the non-transparent procedures for accessing public subsidies, the lack of suitable educational materials and qualified teachers, the lack of participation of Turkish Cypriots in public life and the multi-faceted discrimination faced by the Roma and migrants. In relation to the latter the Opinion makes special reference to media-fuelled racism and to police misconduct - www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/minorities/3_FCNMdocs/PDF_3rd_OP_Cyprus_en.pdf. The government’s comments to the Advisory Committee’s Third Opinion received on 8 October 2010 are available at http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/minorities/3_FCNMdocs/PDF_3rd_Com_Cyprus_en.pdf.
