CAN - The Cyprus Action Network

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing - Albert Einstein

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Manifesto

The Cyprus Action Network (CAN) is a group of activists (Cypriot and non-Cypriot) organized outside Cyprus around a common goal; that of improving the human rights situation on the island. Divided for decades, thousands as refugees, controlled by massive foreign armies and repressive governments, the people of Cyprus await for foreign powers to "solve" the infamous Cyprus problem. The Cyprus problem is being used by the current regimes as a blanket to cover up the violations of human rights that take place in everyday life on both sides of the island. The animosity between the two sides and the need to put on a strong front, means that the rulers prefer not to have these problems mentioned or exposed at all. Using the extraordinary circumstances as an excuse, the authorities on both sides are also using the educational system as a tool for the indoctrination of the youth with chauvinistic, militaristic and biased propaganda.

CAN aims to focus on issues other than the well-documented (and very important) gross human rights violations. We believe that the road to a real solution of the Cyprus problem passes through the elimination of all violations of human rights for all the people living in Cyprus. As long as these violations are tolerated, the authorities will use them as means for silencing the opposition and poisoning the young generations with their divisive policies. CAN believes that all Cypriots should be united in a genuinely independent homeland enjoying all basic freedoms and rights. CAN upholds the main principles outlined in the United Nations charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and relevant UN conventions. As an organization of a European country, we further uphold the European Human Rights Convention.

Furthermore, CAN recognizes and supports the growing multiculturalism that is taking place in Cyprus. The influx of immigrants from Armenia, Russia, Romania, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and others, as well as the pending membership of Cyprus into the EU, means that Cyprus shoud become tolerant and welcoming to the growing diversity in its homogeneously limited society. We are also concerned with the treatment of people of various origins who came or were brought to the northern part of the island after 1974. CAN strongly advocates that minority rights and privileges should be equivalent to those held by the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot community.

In this spirit, it will undertake action, as an international grassroots organization, to expose these violations. It will engage in non-violent direct action -- including civil disobedience and it will work together with other activist networks to create awareness and bring change. CAN will focus its work outside the island to bring these mostly unnoticed, unspoken sides of the problem to the world's attention.