Human rights bodies and others expressed ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES concerns about the living conditions in During the year, the remains of 1,023 reception facilities, including the restrictions missing people (732 Greek Cypriots and 291 imposed in response to the Covid-19 Turkish Cypriots) were identified by the pandemic. Committee of Missing Persons in Cyprus in In November, the president requested its mission to establish the fate of individuals emergency support from the EU for the who were forcibly disappeared during the management of migration, including the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and temporary suspension of new asylum the events of 1974. applications. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION CZECH REPUBLIC The leading anti-racism organization KISA continued to face dissolution proceedings as Czech Republic a result of a 2020 legislative change, which Head of state: Miloš Zeman led to the organization’s removal from the Head of government: Petr Fiala (replaced Andrej Babiš registry of associations in December 2020 in December) due to a minor delay in their complying with the new requirements. KISA appealed before There were concerns over the independence the country’s Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the of public broadcasting media. Parliament organization was operating with serious voted for a bill to compensate thousands of limitations. Romawomen who were unlawfully sterilized VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS in the past. Authorities denied that police officers were responsible for the death of a In September, the Cyprus Supreme Court Roma man during a police intervention heard an appeal by a young British woman against him. against a district court ruling which found her BACKGROUND guilty of making false claims when she reported she was gang-raped in July 2019. Throughout the year, the government Serious concerns existed about the reported adopted socio-economic measures to support shortcomings of the police investigation into individuals affected by the Covid-19 the case and the fairness of her first instance pandemic. They included 14 days’ trial. compensation of wages for those undertaking EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE compulsory quarantine. In February, police reportedly used unlawful FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY force against peaceful protesters during an Authorities restricted the right to freedom of anti-corruption demonstration in Nicosia. An peaceful assembly in response to Covid-19. investigation was started by the Independent In December 2020, Parliament announced a Authority for the Investigation of Complaints state of emergency which lasted until 11 against the Police. Although the investigation April. During this period, gatherings were was reportedly completed, the outcome was restricted to a maximum of 500 people. The not known by the end of the year. decision led to protests in January under the FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY slogan “Let’s open the Czech Republic”. The Cypriot authorities kept in place an FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION unlawful and disproportionate blanket ban on There were concerns over the independence all demonstrations, introduced as part of of public broadcasting media. In March, the Covid-19 related restrictions in March 2020. European Broadcasting Union stated that it had observed increasing politicization of the Amnesty International Report 2021/22 143