About Us
RTCYPP Office
The RTCYPP Office aims to build trust between communities in Cyprus, foster mutual respect and understanding, and promote greater awareness. To achieve this, it carries out several initiatives, including:
- “Know Your Neighbor, Show Respect”, which encourages awareness and respect for the different fasting periods observed by Cyprus’s religious communities;
- The “RTCYPP Round Table on Human Rights”, which promotes dialogue on religious freedoms between faith communities and civil society;
- A clear communication strategy through social media and its website.
RELIGION, PEACEBUILDING, AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN CYPRUS
Under the auspices of the Embassy of Sweden, the Office of the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process (RTCYPP) is a peacebuilding initiative carried out with the religious leaders of Cyprus who have committed to working together for human rights, peace, and reconciliation.
Based at the Home for Cooperation, the RTCYPP Office was established in 2011 to promote, facilitate, and support dialogue among religious leaders, as well as efforts for religious freedom and peace in Cyprus, and to contribute positively and constructively to the Cyprus peace negotiations.
Archbishop Chrysostomos II and Mufti Talip Atalay were the first religious leaders to establish a successful working relationship with each other with the facilitation of Sweden, after more than fifty years of division. In 2012, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus and the Muslim Mufti invited the heads of the Maronite, Armenian Orthodox, and Latin Catholic Churches to join them in their advocacy efforts for peace, human rights, and religious freedom in Cyprus.
Originally a quiet initiative that began in 2009 at the Swedish Ambassador’s residence in Cyprus, RTCYPP has since evolved into a four-pillar active peacebuilding effort:
Fostering mutual understanding and trust between religious leaders and their faith communities
Promoting confidence-building measures
Defending the right to worship and free access to churches, mosques, and monasteries
Ensuring the protection of all religious monuments in Cyprus
RTCYPP has made significant progress in the area of religious freedom and human rights in Cyprus, strengthening interfaith and intercommunal communication and cooperation. With the support and presence of Muslim and Christian religious leaders or their representatives, RTCYPP has contributed to the reopening, renovation, and cleaning of many neglected and closed religious sites—some for the first time since 1963 or 1974—for worship purposes, and since 2014, has facilitated special pilgrimage visits to Hala Sultan Tekke.
The Religious Leaders of Cyprus jointly advocate for religious freedoms and human rights. Their historic joint statements and appeals include:
Joint Statement on the Resumption of Peace Talks (26 February 2014)
Joint Statement of the Religious Leaders of Cyprus Condemning all Forms of Attacks, Terrorism, and Violence (24 November 2015)
Joint Appeal on the Issue of Missing Persons in Cyprus (9 December 2016)
Joint Statement Condemning Violence Against Women and Girls (8 March 2017)
In June 2017, the religious leaders issued a statement in support of the ongoing peace negotiations in Crans-Montana.
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