Cyprus-Forum.com

[CopperLine]

I regret urging Get Real to examine this case since his first effort completely missed the point of the case.

The RoC claims authority and jurisdiction over the whole of the island (albeit that is contested by TRNC). A citizen of the RoC whose rights have been violated either directly by the competent state (RoC) or whose rights have failed to be upheld by the competent state (RoC) thereby takes a case against that state. The RoC court seems to have found against the complainant not on grounds of competence (i.e that the court could not hear the case or that there was no legal basis for the claim) but that the state was not the proper defendant and that the Missing Persons Commission was the appropriate defendant.

The objection to this judgment is fairly straightforward and if the claimant has got the resources to push the case to appeal and beyond would form the basis of an appeal. Thus the grounds for appeal is likely to be that the state cannot pass its obligations to uphold rights on to another agency and that therefore the High Admin Court was mistaken in law to come to this first judgment. If an appeal failed on those grounds then a case could be brought before the ECHR.

[CopperLine]

They can appeal the decision and if they're successful they then have to prove that the RoC was responsible while the state was being attacked and overrun by one of its guarantors

And no, Get Real, they don't have to prove that the RoC was responsible .... What the complainant are claiming is that the RoC state failed to uphold their human rights in breach of the obligations expressly stated by the RoC.

If a basic quality of the state is that it says it will protect its citizens and will uphold their human rights and then that self-same state fails to do so then people - whether as citizens or simply as human beings - are entitled to hold the state to account. This is a basic democratic principle. In other words the state cannot just pick and choose which rights it wants to uphold or whose rights it wishes to protect or when to maintain those rights.

This case is very, very similar to the cases rightly taken against TRNC/Republic of Turkey. All power to the complainants, I say.

[Nikitas]

The missing persons commission, if memory serves, is set up by agreement between the parties and the UN to investigate the whole issue of the missing. The guidelines are humanitarian. Both sides have contracted to hand over jurisdiction to the commission. If either side unilaterally investigates isolated cases would that not be seen as undermining the commission?

The initial post does not define the reasoning on which the case is based. Is it alleging a failure by the RoC to ensure the safety of those who are now missing? Or is it asking simply for investigation to determine the fate of those missing?