Ph.D. students
Dirpolis Institute
Isil Nur Kurnaz
Bio
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. 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 LGBTİQ+ 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 and a member of the Network for Future by the Swedish Institute. I am writing regularly for the Birikim Journal in Turkey.
As a PhD 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 PhD thesis, I am looking at the clashing interests and mobilization 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.
Research
International human rights law, constitutional law, strategic human rights litigation, gender studies, culture wars
Publications
Violence Against Women on The Axis of The Istanbul Convention And Its Monitoring Mechanisms After The Denunciation: A Comparative Analysis On Turkish and Polish Constitutional Courts’ Decisions, in the Book “Human Rights in a Changing World – Reflections on Fundamental Challenges” Springer Press, Editors: Prof. Dr. Peter Hermann, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Okyayuz , Prof. Dr. Mao Junxian , Prof. Dr. George Mpedi Lethokwa, Feb. 2023.
Bir AİHM Yargıcının Not Defteri, (A Diary of the ECHR) (co-authored with Dr. Rıza Türmen), İletişim Press, November 2022. https://iletisim.com.tr/kitap/bir-aihm-yargicinin-not-defteri/10277
Işıl Kurnaz - Dr. Mert Duygun (co-authored), Does the Government System of the 1921 Constitution Qualify as an Assembly Government System? The Controversial Government System of the 1921 Constitution?, International Association of Constitutional Law Blog, https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/centenary-of-the-turkish-constitution/2021/3/16/does-the-government-system-of-the-1921-constitution-qualify-as-an-assembly-government-system-the-controversial-government-system-of-the-1921-constitution-5x4nn
Tehanu: Bir kadının nerede başlayıp nerede bittiğini kim bilebilir?, Hafif Kahramanlar, der. Emel Uzun, Aksu Bora, İletişim Yayınları, Ocak 2023.
Courses
Seminar organised by Sant'Anna Legal Studies at School Sant’Anna of Advanced Studies in Pisa (STALS), with a title of "Strategic Human Rights Litigation: Challanges and Possibilities", (20 September 2023).
University of York Centre for Applied Human Rights, The Istanbul Convention in Turkey: Past, Present and Future in Action Gothenburg University, Project of TechnAct Research Cluster, Speech on Constitutional Rights in Turkey.
Bergen Global and Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, Speech on the Constitutional Regime on the International Human Rights Agreements according to the Turkish Constitution.