Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus/Secretary-General’s mission of good offices in Cyprus

Mandate start: March 1964                                                                                     

Mandate end: ongoing  

Mandating body: Security Council  

Initial mandate decision: resolution 186 (1964) 

Initial Head of Mission:  Mr. Sakari S. Tuomioja (Finland) 

There has been 1 special political mission on the island, with multiple incarnations.

The mandate of the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus (OSASG-Cyprus) derives from the priorities established in relevant Security Council resolutions, beginning with resolution 186 (1964), and related decisions and an exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council (S/2008/456 and S/2008/457)¹⁰.

The Security Council initially requested the Secretary-General to use his good offices in Cyprus in its resolution 186 (1964) by appointing a mediator. Subsequent Security Council resolutions relevant to the mandate of the mission of good offices in Cyprus of the Secretary-General, include 367 (1975), 541 ( 1983), 550 (1984), 649 (1990), 1250 (1999),  1251 (1999), 1475 (2003), 1728 (2006), 1758 (2007), 1818 (2008), 1847 (2008), 1873 (2009), 1930 (2010), 1986 (2011), 2026 (2011), 2058 (2012), 2114 (2013), 2135 (2014), 2168 (2014), 2197 (2015), 2234 (2015), 2263 (2016), 2300 (2016), 2338 (2017), 2369 (2017), 2398 (2018), 2430 (2018), 2453 (2019), 2506 (2020), 2537 (2020), 2561 (2021), 2587 (2021), 2618 (2022), 2674 (2023), and 2771 (2025).   

Since 1964, there have been multiple senior UN officials representing the Secretary-General in carrying out the good offices mandate to support the Cyprus peace process (a mediator, Special Representatives of the Secretary-General in the earlier years and, in the last few decades, Special Advisers to the Secretary-General). At various times, the Secretary-General has also appointed a Personal Envoy or instructed other senior United Nations officials to perform tasks in connection with the mandate. While the mandate continued throughout, there were active periods of negotiations on the Cyprus issue during the years of 1964-1965, 1968-1973, 1977 & 1979, 1980-1986, 1988-1992, 1999-2004, 2008-2017.

In addition, the Acheson Plans were put forward in 1964 (by the initiative of the United States of America) and the Anglo-American-Canadian Plan was put forward in 1978. Between 1993 and 1998, the United Nations was engaged in a process focused on confidence building measures; between 1999 and 2004 there were negotiations and referenda on the Annan Plan; and between 2018 and the present, the focus has been on facilitating the Technical Committees (bodies formed by the two Cypriot leaders in the context of the peace process), confidence building and consultations with the parties seeking common ground to resume active negotiations. 

Over the years, representatives of the Secretary-General carrying out his mission of good offices (whether Special Adviser, Representative, or Personal Envoy) have, along with UN staff from the special political mission, engaged with the leaders of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders and other concerned parties, including Greece, Türkiye and the United Kingdom (the guarantor powers), members of the Security Council, and the European Union to advance the search for a comprehensive and mutually agreed solution to the division in Cyprus.

In the last 20 years, after the unsuccessful referenda on the Annan Plan in 2004, the Secretary-General saw “no apparent basis for resuming the good offices effort as long as the political stalemate continued and OSASG-Cyprus was temporarily closed. The current iteration of the special political mission in Cyprus was put in place by way of Security Council resolution 1818, adopted on 13 June 2008, in which the Security Council welcomed the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders’ agreement of 21 March and the Joint Statement of 23 May 2008.  It also welcomed the intention of the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Adviser at the appropriate time, and two Special Advisers have served since then, Alexander Downer (Australia) and Espen Barth Eide (Norway).

Since the Conference on Cyprus ended inconclusively in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in 2017, there has not been a Special Adviser in post, although the Secretary-General has reaffirmed the readiness of the United Nations to assist the sides by appointing a Special Adviser, should they jointly decide to engage in an active negotiation process. In the meantime, the good offices work has been continued by the special political mission on the island.  A Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General served from January through July 2024, and, in March 2025, the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, as well as the three guarantor powers (United Kingdom, Greece and Türkiye), agreed to the re-appointment of a Personal Envoy on Cyprus, which took place in May 2025. 

The Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) provides backstopping support and guidance to the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus. The mission works closely with the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Cyprus (UNFICYP); the head of UNFICYP currently serves as the Deputy Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Cyprus, an institutional arrangement that has been in place since 2008.