Security Council resolution 2483 (2019) [on extension of the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) until 31 Jan. 2020]
Symbol: S/RES/2483 (2019)
Date: 2019-07-25
Status: adopted
Agenda: S/74 [43] UN PEACEKEEPING FORCE IN CYPRUS
S/74 [42] CYPRUS QUESTION
Subjects: UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus|PEACEBUILDING|CONFIDENCE-BUILDING MEASURES|PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS|GOOD OFFICES|CYPRUS|CYPRUS QUESTION
Votes in favour: 15
Votes against: 0
Abstentions: 0
Voting record:
country: BELGIUM
vote: yes
country: CHINA
vote: yes
country: CÔTE D'IVOIRE
vote: yes
country: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
vote: yes
country: EQUATORIAL GUINEA
vote: yes
country: FRANCE
vote: yes
country: GERMANY
vote: yes
country: INDONESIA
vote: yes
country: KUWAIT
vote: yes
country: PERU
vote: yes
country: POLAND
vote: yes
country: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
vote: yes
country: SOUTH AFRICA
vote: yes
country: UNITED KINGDOM
vote: yes
country: UNITED STATES
vote: yes

               United Nations                                                                      S/RES/2483 (2019)
               Security Council                                                  Distr.: General
                                                                                 25 July 2019




               Resolution 2483 (2019)
               Adopted by the Security Council at its 8586th meeting, on
               25 July 2019

                    The Security Council,
                     Welcoming the report of the Secretary-General of 16 April on his Good Offices
               (S/2019/322) and of 10 July on the United Nations operation in Cyprus ( S/2019/562),
               further welcoming the Secretary-General’s willingness, and expressing its full support
               for his Good Offices to remain available to assist the sides, should they jointly decide
               to re-engage in negotiations with the necessary political will,
                     Underscoring that the responsibility for finding a solution lies first and foremost
               with the Cypriots themselves, and reaffirming the primary role of the United Nations
               in assisting the parties to bring the Cyprus conflict and division of the island to a
               comprehensive and durable settlement with a sense of urgency,
                    Noting the progress made towards a comprehensive settlement up to and
               including the Conference on Cyprus in June 2017, including the commitments in the
               leaders’ Joint Statement of 2 April 2017 on the basis of the Joint Declaration of
               11 February 2014, and recalling the six points of the Secretary-General’s framework
               presented on 30 June 2017 as a way to move forward to close the remaining gaps,
                     Urging the sides to renew their efforts to achieve an enduring, comprehensive
               and just settlement based on a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality,
               as set out in relevant Security Council resolutions, including OP4 of its resolution
               716 (1991), and stressing that the status quo is unsustainable,
                     Expressing concern at the increased tensions in the eastern Mediterranean over
               hydrocarbons exploration, convinced of the many important benefits, including
               economic benefits for all Cypriots that would flow from a comprehensive and durable
               settlement, and reiterating the Secretary-General’s call for serious efforts to avoid
               any further escalation and to defuse tensions,
                     Recalling its resolution 1325 (2000) and related resolutions, recognising that
               the active and meaningful participation and leadership of women is essential in
               building peace in Cyprus and will contribute to making any futu re settlement
               sustainable, welcoming efforts to bring together a broader range of women actors on
               both sides, and looking forward to the outcome of the gender-sensitive socioeconomic impact assessment requested in its resolution 2453 (2019),
                    Emphasising the importance of confidence-building measures and their timely
               implementation, and urging the sides to step up their efforts to promote



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               intercommunal contacts, reconciliation and the active engagement of civil society, in
               particular women and youth,
                    Noting that the Government of Cyprus is agreed that in view of the prevailing
               conditions on the island it is necessary to keep the United Nations Peacekeeping Force
               in Cyprus (UNFICYP) beyond 31 July 2019,
                     Welcoming measures to date to strengthen the liaison and engagement capacity
               of the mission, noting the importance of transition planning in relation to the
               settlement, and emphasising the need to regularly review all peacekeeping operations,
               including UNFICYP, to ensure efficiency and effectiveness,
                    Echoing the Secretary-General’s gratitude to the Government of Cyprus and the
               Government of Greece for their voluntary contributions to the funding of UNFICYP,
               and expressing appreciation to Member States that contribute personnel to UNFICYP,
                    Noting with appreciation the efforts of the Secretary-General, his Special
               Representative Elizabeth Spehar, and senior United Nations official Jane Holl Lute,
                     1.   Expresses regret at the lack of progress towards a settlement since the
               conclusion of the 2017 Conference on Cyprus, and urges the sides and all involved
               participants to renew their political will and commitment to a settlement under United
               Nations auspices, including by engaging actively and with a sense of urgency with
               senior United Nations official, Jane Holl Lute, to achieve agreement on terms of
               reference to enable results-oriented negotiations leading to a settlement as quickly as
               possible;
                     2.   Calls for a reduction of tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean; calls upon
               the leaders of the two Cypriot communities and all involved parties to refrain from
               any actions and rhetoric that might damage the chances of success;
                    3.   Reaffirms all its relevant resolutions on Cyprus, in particular resolution
               1251 (1999);
                    4.    Recalls its resolution 2453 (2019), and calls upon the two leaders to:
                    (a) put their efforts expeditiously behind further work on reaching
               convergences on the core issues;
                    (b) empower all Technical Committees to submit proposals for their
               consideration to enhance intercommunal contacts and improve the daily lives of all
               Cypriots;
                    (c) promote peace education across the island, including by further
               empowering the Technical Committee on Education to implement the
               recommendations contained in its joint report of 2017, and to address impediments to
               peace in school materials, including text books, as a contribution to trust -building
               between the communities;
                    (d) improve the public atmosphere for negotiation to secure a settlement,
               including by preparing the communities for a settlement through public messages on
               convergences and the way ahead, and delivering more constructive and harmonised
               messages; and by refraining from actions or rhetoric that detracts from a successful
               process or could make it more difficult to achieve;
                     (e) increase their support to, and ensure a meaningful role for, civil society
               engagement in peace efforts, in particular strengthening the participation of women ’s
               organisations and youth in the process, including by empowering the Technical
               Committee on Gender Equality to meet and develop an action plan supporting
               women’s participation in peace talks and providing direct support and encouragement
               to civil society organisations to enhance inter-communal contact and trust-building;


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                 5.     Calls upon the sides and the relevant involved parties, with UNFICYP as
           facilitator through its liaison role, to intensify their efforts to establish a mechanism
           for direct contacts at military level, and to continue to explore ways to establish
           mechanisms and enhance existing initiatives where necessary for effectively
           alleviating tensions, increasing joint efforts on criminal matters and to help address
           island-wide matters that affect all Cypriots;
                 6.    Welcomes the recent progress towards the inter-operability of mobile
           phones across the island, urges the implementation of all other agreed confidencebuilding measures including those agreed by the leaders in their meeting of
           26 February 2019, and looks forward to agreement on and implementation of further
           steps, including military confidence-building measures;
                 7.    Commends the work of the Committee on Missing Persons, and calls upon
           all parties expeditiously to enhance their cooperation with the Committee ’s work, in
           particular through providing full access to all areas and responding in a timely manner
           to requests for archival information on possible burial sites;
                 8.    Expresses its full support for UNFICYP, and decides to extend its mandate
           for a further period ending 31 January 2020;
                 9.    Expresses serious concern at the increased number of violations of the
           military status quo along the ceasefire lines, calls on the sides and all involved parties
           to respect UNFICYP’s mandated authority in, and delineation of, the buffer zone, and
           urges the use of the 2018 United Nations aide-memoire by the sides to ensure peace
           and security in the buffer zone;
                10. Calls on the Turkish Cypriot side and Turkish forces to restore in Strovilia
           the military status quo which existed there prior to 30 June 2000, and recalls the status
           of Varosha as set out in relevant resolutions;
                11. Calls on both sides to agree to, and to implement, a plan of work to achieve
           a mine-free Cyprus, including as a first step, delivering on their agreement of
           26 February 2019;
                 12. Requests the Secretary-General to increase the number of women in
           UNFICYP in line with its resolution 2242 (2015), as well as to ensure the full,
           effective and meaningful participation of women in all aspects of operations;
                 13. Welcomes the initiatives undertaken by the Secretary-General to
           standardise a culture of performance in UN peacekeeping, recalls its requests in
           resolution 2378 (2017) and resolution 2436 (2018) that the Secretary-General ensure
           that performance data related to the effectiveness of peac ekeeping operations is used
           to improve mission operations, including decisions such as those regarding
           deployment, remediation, repatriation and incentives, and reaffirms its support for the
           development of a comprehensive and integrated performance policy framework that
           identifies clear standards of performance for evaluating all United Nations civilian
           and uniformed personnel working in and supporting peacekeeping operations that
           facilitates effective and full implementation of mandates, and includes compr ehensive
           and objective methodologies based on clear and well-defined benchmarks to ensure
           accountability for underperformance and incentives and recognition for outstanding
           performance, and calls on the United Nations to apply this framework to UNFICYP
           as described in resolution 2436 (2018);
                 14. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to take necessary measures to
           ensure full compliance of all personnel in UNFICYP with the United Nations zero -
           tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse and to keep the Council fully
           informed about the Mission’s progress in this regard, and urges troop-contributing
           and police-contributing countries to continue taking appropriate preventative action,

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               including vetting of all personnel, pre-deployment and in-mission awareness training,
               timely investigations of allegations, as appropriate, and to take appropriate steps to
               hold perpetrators accountable and repatriate units when there is credible evidence of
               widespread or systematic sexual exploitation and abuse by those u nits;
                     15. Requests the Secretary-General to submit by 15 November 2019 a report
               on his Good Offices, in particular on progress towards reaching a consensus starting
               point for meaningful results-oriented negotiations leading to a settlement, encourages
               the leaders of the two communities to provide written updates to the Good Offices
               Mission of the Secretary-General on the actions they have taken in support of the
               relevant parts of this resolution with a view to reaching a sustainable and
               comprehensive settlement, and further requests the Secretary-General to include the
               contents of these updates in his Good Offices report; further requests the Secretary-General to submit by 10 January 2020 a report on implementation of this resolution,
               including further information on how best to strengthen UNFICYP’s role in the buffer
               zone to de-escalate tensions, and to keep the Security Council updated on events as
               necessary;
                    16.   Decides to remain seized of the matter.




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