Author: Özlem Zıngıl Kök

Özlem Zıngıl Kök is a lawyer and human rights researcher from Turkey. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, focusing on the state duty to protect in competitive authoritarian regimes, using Turkey as a case study. She will explore how state–business alliances in these contexts affect human rights and the environment and where the limits of existing business and human rights instruments become visible.

She has extensive experience in legal practice, corporate counsel roles, and human rights advocacy. Her work included business and human rights, environmental and climate justice, strategic litigation, and international advocacy on issues such as enforced disappearances, police violence, impunity, and shrinking civic space in Turkey.

Özlem is a member of the Istanbul Bar Association and has represented cases before the Turkish Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. Her research interests include corporate accountability, environmental justice, access to remedy, and protecting human rights in authoritarian contexts.