UN Secretary-General Guterres visits Committee on Missing Persons laboratory in Nicosia

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres visited the Anthropological Laboratory of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) in Nicosia on July 28, 2026. The visit, which was specifically requested by Guterres, took place within the UN Protected Area in the island’s divided capital. During the session, the Secretary-General was briefed by the committee’s three members—representing the UN, the Greek Cypriot community, and the Turkish Cypriot community—on the humanitarian progress made in tracing and identifying individuals who went missing during the intercommunal violence of the 1960s and the 1974 conflict.

Guterres was accompanied by high-ranking UN officials, including Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs; Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations; and Khassim Diagne, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNFICYP. The Secretary-General praised the committee's bicommunal operation, describing the effort as extraordinary for providing long-awaited answers to families who have endured decades of uncertainty. According to Leonidas Pantelides, the Greek Cypriot member of the CMP, the meeting involved a substantive and honest discussion, with Guterres expressing personal appreciation for the scientific work and the humanitarian impact of the committee’s long-standing mission.