Konuk Yazar,29 Eylül 2003

Konuk Yazar, 29 Eylül 2003

ULUS IRKAD

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN CYPRUS (*)

Human rights are universal because they are assumed to apply to all human beings. They also profess to measure up to standards of justice and equality in the sense that they become fundamental. Although the fundamentality aspect of human rights is controversial, they are generally understood to mean “fundamental” claims, that is, claims or rights without which a human being cannot do. Moreover, they limit State power. Indeed, human rights, which were known as natural rights based on natural law before the establishment of the United Nations, have been gradually gained in centuries-long struggles against absolute monarchs(1).

International human rights law is the totality of international rules developed to ensure respect for human rights everywhere. These rules are not directly enforceable by individuals in national courts. To be effective, they have to be made part of a country’s domestic law(2).

The universal and regional instruments, institutions and procedures on human rights, as well as the actions and decisions of those institutions, make up the content of the international human rights norms. For instance, the Bush administration violates human rights in its own country although Bill of Rights exist, human rights are grossly and consistently violated. Legislation prohibiting discrimination and slavery, and other legislation and judicial and adminisitrative decisions and relevant to international human rights laws are disregarded.

Human rights are being taught at many schools in many countries. In recent years, a number of academic institutions in various countries have begun to offer courses on human rights. One such institution is the university of Padova, Italy,which since 1982, has been conducting post-graduate training and research on human rights. The inter-disciplinary 3-year programme aims at educating civil servants, international civil servants, ombudsmen, public defenders of children, researchers and teachers, officers of non-governmental organizations and others . In recent years also in Cyprus Human Rights Courses have been organised for the elementary teachers and various groups.

HOW SHOULD THE HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION BE IN CYPRUS ?

Human Rights education can be a theme for uniting the efforts on both sides of the island to promote better communication, mutual respect and intercultural understanding. But before determining the curriculums, in Cyprus we have to look at text books and make critics and corrections on many contradictions coming out.

What is of utmost significance as a starting point for peace in Cyprus, is the acknowledgement of sufferings that each community has experinced and subsequently developed its own sense of justice. The difference between the two, hinges on the fact that the traumatic experiences that each side has reaped from the conflict refer to and derive from different events, incidents and historical periods. For the Turkish Cypriots, the painful memories concentrate mainly on the period 1963-1974. Their recollection concerns the constraining underdeveloped life in their enclaves, which encompassed just 3% of the territory of Cyprus, the defeats in the bloody conflicts with the Greek Cypriots, with a loss of human life staggering in the eyes of the Turkish Cypriots as a numerical minority. It concerns the missing persons and generally the feelings that they were living under conditions of perpetual siege.

Because of the reasons above, in the Turkish Cypriot Curriculum the main aim of the Cyprus history book is to introduce the national struggle against the Greek Cypriots. These periods are presented within Turkish nationalist view.

Mostly the books use this phrase (Let’s Learn our Country, page 9, Elementary Schools) I quote:

“...After eleven years, on the 20 th July 1974, the Turkish army landed her troops on Kyrenia shores. The peace operations resulted with the division of the island as North and South. As a result Turkish Cypriots won their liberty again. Turks settled in the North and Greeks in the South. Later on, the Turkish Federal Republic was founded. On the 15th of November Turks changed the status again and renamed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus thus reinforcing her independence. We are now living in peace and freedom in TRNC.”

For the Greek-Cypriots, on the other hand, the experience of injustice originates mainly from the more concentrated, but inundating events of 1974, with the Greek Junta’s coup d’etat and the Turkish military intervention. The tragic memories refer to the unprecedented loss of human life, to the mass uprooting from their homes, from one moment to the next, to the unrepeatable destruction of property, to the refugees and the 1619 missing persons. Most significant is also the fact that the pain and injustice that resulted from the coup d’etat. With all the mixed feelings of confusion and guilt over the civil bloodshed, were unconsciously transfered and fused with the pain induced by Turkey’s operations. While with the recent reemergence of nationalism, this trasference was attempted by certain nationalist groups almost consciously, as a substitute for their guilt in initiating the civil violence among the Greek community(4).

In teaching history the 1974 division of the island is held responsible of Greece’s military government and some of their supporters in Cyprus. This specific approach to this important event in the modern history of the island, enables Makarios depiction as a hero, and on the other hand it gives the impression that the division of the island was an instant mistake made by some fanatics but not the result of a long lasting process beginning in early fifties or even much earlier time. Little space is attributed to the military events themselves but emphasis is stressed on the (Greek Cypriot) refugees who had to abandon their homes as a result of the Turkish intervention. The question of the refugees and the presence of the Turkish army in the Northern part of the island are presented with sheer emotionalism determining the perception of present situation. The foundation of a seperate state in the North is mentioned in one textbook emphasizing the fact that it is illegal and its not recognized by the international community with the exception of Turkey. However, little space is attributed to the above mentioned issues, as the analysed school textbooks narration stops in the mid-eighties or earlier (5).

Irrespective of the particulars from the political solution will take to be mutually acceptable and genuinely viable, the reunification of Cyprus, in effect, passes through peace-making and peace-building between the two communities. The struggle for peace is continues striving for mutual understanding in depth political positions each commuity insistently try to preserve. It is a straining, embracing effort to reconnect with one another through the mode of “relational empathy”. It is a striving for mutual repentance and forgiveness, as the sole means of efectively healing the wounds of the past, of which always lead to new tragedies. It concerns the necessity for inner catharsis from the historical accumulation of numerous evils and sufferings. It concerns the cultivation of a peace-loving pesonality and of a peace-oriented culture, as a precondition and a finality, for the transformation of society from an order of conflict to an order of peace.

If we pursue the principles given above the Human Rights Curriculum will be consisted on the strong basics.

REFERENCES

A. ÖZDEMİR.(1991). Understanding Human Rights, Nicosia-Cyprus, 13.

Ibid,101.

ANASTASIOU, Harry.(1996). Conflict, Alienation, And The Hope Of Peace: The Struggle For Peace In Militarised Cyprus, The Cyprus Review, Intercollege,V.8,80.

Ibid,81.

KOULLAPIS, Loris.(2000). The Subject Of History in the Greek Cypriot Education System, A subset Of The Greek Nation, Pyla.

(*)This paper was presented at the "Human Rights Education Conference" at Intercollege in Nicosia on the 20th of September, 2003 organized by the Cyprus Intercultural Centre.