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Cyprus RightsThe Republic of Cyprus claims the whole island, and owes every right that claim implies to every Cypriot. Cyprus Rights documents where that duty goes unmet for Turkish Cypriots — with sources.

Language · Education in the south

Turkish in state education in the south

Report card / Language / Education in the south

Living in the southInsufficiently documentedInsufficiently documented — no score

In its own 2020 report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the state described one Limassol school where a Turkish Cypriot teacher taught Turkish six periods a week — the duty-bearer's own account, about a school attended by Roma pupils. In 2026 the delegation repeated nearly the same description in general terms, without giving numbers. The Committee found the availability of Turkish-language education insufficient in certain areas. No count of teaching posts, schools or pupils is published.1234

Basis and sources

Legal anchor Article 3 of the 1960 Constitution; Article 2 of Protocol No 1 ECHR

Sources for this criterion

  1. 1. CERD/C/CYP/25 — twenty-fifth periodic report of Cyprus (state party report)A — primary / documentary · Republic of Cyprus (submitted to CERD) · 2020-07-22
  2. 2. Meeting summary of the CERD 117th-session review of the twenty-fifth periodic report of Cyprus (CERD/C/CYP/25), public meeting of 17 April 2026A — primary / documentary · Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights · 2026-04-17
  3. 3. CERD/C/CYP/CO/25 — Concluding observations on the twenty-fifth periodic report of CyprusA — primary / documentary · UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination · 2026-05-28
  4. 4. Turkish Cypriot Rights Issue Register and Legal Framework Register (Cyprus Rights reference corpus)D — open source · Cyprus Rights · 2026-08-24

Status undocumentedWeight 3/5Score Insufficiently documented — no score

Sources

  1. CERD/C/CYP/25 — twenty-fifth periodic report of Cyprus (state party report)A — primary / documentaryRepublic of Cyprus (submitted to CERD) · 2020-07-22Cyprus's twenty-fifth periodic state report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/CYP/25), submitted 22 July 2020.The Republic's own report to CERD, 22 July 2020 — the duty-bearer's stated account, including the Agios Antonios (Limassol) Turkish-language teaching example for the 2018-2019 school yearhttps://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4075019/files/CERD_C_CYP_25-EN.pdf
  2. Meeting summary of the CERD 117th-session review of the twenty-fifth periodic report of Cyprus (CERD/C/CYP/25), public meeting of 17 April 2026A — primary / documentaryOffice of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights · 2026-04-17An OHCHR meeting summary of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination's public review, at its 117th session, of Cyprus's twenty-fifth periodic report.OHCHR meeting summary, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 117th session (13 April – 1 May 2026), public meeting of 17 April 2026 on CERD/C/CYP/25. A secretariat summary of oral exchanges; the Committee's concluding observations (expected symbol CERD/C/CYP/CO/25) had not been retrieved by Cyprus Rights at the date of assessmenthttps://www.ohchr.org/en/meeting-summaries/2026/04/experts-committee-elimination-racial-discrimination-commend-cyprus
  3. CERD/C/CYP/CO/25 — Concluding observations on the twenty-fifth periodic report of CyprusA — primary / documentaryUN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination · 2026-05-28The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination's concluding observations on the twenty-fifth periodic report of Cyprus.Concluding observations on the twenty-fifth periodic report of Cyprus, CERD/C/CYP/CO/25, adopted at the 3217th meeting on 27 April 2026, issued 28 May 2026 (paras 27-29 on Turkish Cypriots)https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CERD/C/CYP/CO/25
  4. Turkish Cypriot Rights Issue Register and Legal Framework Register (Cyprus Rights reference corpus)D — open sourceCyprus Rights · 2026-08-24Cyprus Rights' own internal reference corpus of registers tracking Turkish Cypriot rights issues and the applicable legal framework.Cyprus Rights reference corpus, compiled 24 August 2026: internal/reference/rights-issue-register-turkish-cypriot.md and internal/reference/legal-framework-register.md. Cited for duty-bearer positions as the registers record them and for documentation-gap statements; each register entry carries its own underlying sources