Commission against Racism collects report on Cyprus

THE European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) visited Cyprus this week to obtain legal and policy aspects within the framework of their country-by-country reports.

The ECRI is a body of the European Council, composed of independent experts recognised for their moral authority on human rights and combating racism and intolerance within greater Europe.

In 1998, ECRI completed its first round of CBC reports covering all 41 member Sta- tes of the Council of Europe.

A first report on Cyprus was published in November 1999, where international legal instruments, specialised bodies, civil and administrative law provisions, constitutional provisions and criminal law provisions were reviewed, with suggestions put forward on improving these aspects.

Policy aspects – the reception and status of non-citizens (including asylum seekers, refugees and detention of non-citizens), education and training, training of police and religious intolerance – were also reviewed, with suggestions put forward for improvement.

In January 1999, the second phase of CBC reports began with the aim of publishing ten reports a year over a four-year period involving all member States of the Council of Europe.

The ECRI held informal meetings in Cyprus between Monday and Thursday to review the outcome of proposals made in the first report and to prepare for the second report.

The Cyprus Mail last year received an award from the ECRI for reporting the wrongful deportation of two Senegalese computer experts who were invited to attend a conference at the Hilton hotel.

Both men had all the relevant documents to prove that they were bona fide participants, but the Immigration refused to believe them, accused them of falsifying documents on the basis of their ethnicity, and accused them of wanting to stay in the country illegally.

The article resulted in the Cabinet apologising to the two men and an investigation being conducted.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.