Isil Nur Kurnaz

I am a lawyer with specific expertise and interest in international human rights law/ constitutional law.  I graduated from Bilkent University Faculty of Law in Ankara with a distinction degree. Then I obtained a Swedish Government Scholarship in the name of Anna Lindh by the Swedish Institute and got my LL.M. degree, with distinction, in international human rights law from Lund University/ Sweden in which I worked with Prof. Lee Swepston. My doctoral thesis is on the litigation strategies of conservative/ right-wing strategic litigants before the European Court of Human Rights in the context of cultural wars. 

I worked as a consultant in the United Nations Women Chapter, National Endowment for Democracy, Amnesty International and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in terms of gender equality, human rights, constitutional jurisprudence and strategic human rights litigation. As a UN consultant, I worked on a report on equal political representation of women and the LGBTIQ+ community with Aslıhan Tekin from the European Women's Lobby. I worked on the Lanzarote Convention, the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, as a legal consultant at the International Child Center.  I am a registered lawyer at the Ankara Bar Association, a member of the Women's Coalition in Turkey, an alternate- board member of the European Women's Lobby and a member of the Network for Future Global Leaders by the Swedish Institute. I regularly write for the Birikim Journal in Turkey. 

I have been awarded Halit Çelenk Law Award, Bahri Savcı Human Rights Research Grant, Şirin Tekeli Article Award, Swedish Institute Scholarship, Scholarship by Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna and various other merits. 

As a researcher at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, I am working on strategic human rights litigation through culture wars and the intersecting interests of the litigants on a legal basis under the jurisprudence of ECHR. For my research, I am looking at the clashing interests and mobilization strategies of religious/ faith-based organizations and feminist/gender-based organizations. 

I love literature, philosophy, poetry, movies and Ursula K. Le Guin. I love travelling, art, politics and looking into life as a story of humans bringing different humane narratives.