Our People
Prof Kadriye Bakırcı
Fellow, Visiting Fellow
PhD in Law, LLM, LLB (Istanbul University Faculty of Law)
Kadriye Bakirci is a Law Professor, a Research Fellow, and the Administrator and Researcher of the Commission on Sustainability Data at Kellogg College. She is a Certified Lawyer and a member of the Ankara Bar Association; a Council of Europe (COE) Certified Tutor for the Training of the Trainers for the COE Programme on Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals; National Expert for the European Labour Law Network and National Expert for the European Network of Legal Experts in Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination (Her last country report published by the EU is available at https://www.equalitylaw.eu/country/turkiye).
She received her LLB, LLM, and PhD in law degrees from the Istanbul University Faculty of Law. She is a holder of a Class C Occupational Safety Specialist Certificate. She has been a visiting academic at many institutions including the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (London University), the London School of Economics and Political Science Law Department, Cambridge University Faculty of Law, Cambridge University Centre for European Legal Studies, Stockholm University Faculty of Law, Columbia University Faculty of Law, Lund University Faculty of Economics and Management (Business Law Department), the International Labour Organisation (Geneva), and Oxford University Faculty of Law. She attended the Academy of European Law in Germany for courses concerning EU law.
She is a Fulbright, Swedish Institute, and the Chevening (British Council) Scholar. She is a holder of Grants from the London School of Economics and Political Science, the National Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye, the National Higher Education Board of Turkiye, Hacettepe University, Istanbul Technical University, and the Koc Foundation. She had a full fee exemption from Columbia University Faculty of Law.
She is a holder of an endorsement as an Exceptional Talent by the British Academy, an Outstanding Paper Award 2023 from Emerald Publishing, a Plaque of Honour from the Ankara Bar Association for her contribution to women’s human rights, Visiting Fellowships by Wolfson College (Cambridge University), and Kellogg College (Oxford University).
She is a Founding Member and a current member of the Advisory Board of the Women’s Studies Centre in Science, Engineering, and Technology of Istanbul Technical University which is the first and the only Women’s Studies Center in the science, engineering, and technology field in Turkiye. She is a member of the Ankara Bar Association Center for Legal Aid for the Victims of Violence; a member of the Scientific and Advisory Board of the Associated Metal Workers Union (Istanbul), and a founding member or a member of various international and domestic scientific and occupational organisations, and human, women’s, and children’s rights networks/groups.
She is an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law (UK), Journal of Money Laundering Control (UK), Pravni Vjesnik Journal of Law and Social Sciences of the Faculty of Law Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek (Croatia) and Advisory Board Member of Economics and Society Journal (Turkiye). She is a peer reviewer for several international and national journals and a few national science academies.
She is the leading person for female students of Turkiye to enter the Maritime Faculty of the Istanbul Technical University for the first time in 1999 since the Faculty’s establishment in 1884. She was an elected representative of the Management Faculty’s, and Istanbul Technical University’s research assistants groups between 1998 and 1999. She was, therefore, a member of the Istanbul Technical University Management Faculty’s Executive and Academic Boards and a member of the Istanbul Technical University’s Governing Body and the Senate. During this period, her petition concerning inequality against women students was approved by the ITU’s Governing Body and Senate. She enabled, female students of Turkiye to enter the Maritime Faculty of the ITU, as of a right, for the first time in 1999.
Her areas of expertise include comparative (International, EU, and national) individual and collective labour law, public personnel law, social security law, new technologies (digitalisation) and labour law, the future of work, workers’ rights, workplace ethics, business and human rights, climate change law, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, corporate liability, human rights, rights of women, children, disabled, and migrants, gender equality, non-discrimination, violence in the world of work, health and safety in the workplace, exploitation of labour, precarious work, women’s unpaid labour, exploitation of domestic workers, modern forms of slavery, forced labour, child labour, work-related whistleblowing, human trafficking, human smuggling, forced migration, child, early, and forced marriage, domestic violence, equal access to formal and substantive justice, alternative dispute resolution,
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS
Kadriye Bakirci has 14 Turkish (6 co-authored), and 2 English (1 co-authored) books, 27 English, and 9 Turkish book chapters, 11 English (2 of them co-authored), 1 French and 17 Turkish articles, 5 English and 26 Turkish papers, 6 English flash reports, 5 Turkish (2 of them joint) reports. She reviewed 2 English international books. She also wrote many column articles for newspapers, delivered many public talks, and seminars, and gave many media interviews. Some of her publications were commissioned or funded by professional NGOs, International and European institutions, and the Turkish Research Council. For instance, her joint two volumes of the influential book Women in the World of Work (2007, 2014) were commissioned by the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation, her joint report on the International, European, and Turkish Legislation on Violence Against Women in the Domestic Sphere was funded by the UN (2007) and her report on the International, European and National Standards Concerning Corporate Social Responsibility and Liability (2021) was commissioned by the ILO.
Her pioneering publications have attracted substantial attention from the academic community, government, political parties, judicial circles, workers’ organisations, and women’s movement and received great publicity from the media, raising awareness on several issues such as human rights, gender equality, anti-discrimination, violence, and child labour, etc. Her publications have led to changes in Turkish legislation and campaigns by workers’ organisations and NGOs and they have been cited by the High Courts of Turkiye and scholars. Her publications have been instrumental in harmonising Turkish legislation with International and European Law. They have been used for policy development by the State institutions. Her publications are available at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ORS3-xwAAAAJ&hl=tr and https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kadriye-Bakirci
She has participated in 26 projects as a legal or gender expert, consultant, principal investigator, researcher, trainer, reporter, discussant, etc, funded by the UN, UNICEF, UNDP, ILO, COE, EU, World Bank, SIDA, Raoul Wallenberg Institute, and Swedish, Norwegian, and Dutch Embassies in collaboration with several ministries of Turkiye to promote human rights awareness and/or give seminars for public officials including governors, judges, lawyers, workers’ organisations, and NGOs since the 2000s. One of them included the World Bank’s inaugural project focused on advancing women’s involvement in Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics (STEM) (2013).
TEACHING
Kadriye Bakirci has lectured at different institutions in Turkiye and abroad including Hacettepe University Faculty of Law (Ankara), Istanbul Technical University Management Faculty Law Division (Istanbul), Yeditepe University Law Faculty (Istanbul), Chambers of Civil Engineers Istanbul Branch, Social Democracy Academy (Istanbul), Dogus University Business Administration Faculty (Istanbul), Bilgi University Law Faculty (Istanbul), Yildiz Technical University Business Administration Faculty (Istanbul), East Mediterranean University Law Faculty (Northern Cyprus), Stockholm University Law Faculty (Sweden), The Child Rights Unit of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies London University (UK), The Centre for Development Studies of Cambridge University (UK), Anglia Ruskin University Law Faculty (UK).
She has developed several pioneering undergraduate, LLM, and Ph.D. modules regarding women, children, migrant rights, anti-discrimination, new technologies (including digitalisation) and the law, the future of work, and labour law from the rights and economy perspectives at Istanbul Technical University and Hacettepe University (1998-2020). She led to the development of an MA programme on “Health Law” when she chaired the Private Law Department at Hacettepe University Faculty of Law.
ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES
Kadriye Bakirci has been taking part in various administrative leadership roles, memberships of university and faculty governing boards, centres, and committees at the universities where she has been working:
She was an Elected Chair of the Ethics Board of Hacettepe University, Elected Chair of the Private Law Department and Employment /Labour and Social Security Law Division, and Chair of the Education Committee of Hacettepe University Law Faculty. She was a Member of the Executive Board of the Women’s Studies Centre, the Health and Safety Centre, and a Member of the Executive and Advisory Boards of Disability Centre of Hacettepe University. She was a Member of the Executive Board of the Institute of Social Sciences of Hacettepe University and a Member of the Education Board of Hacettepe University. She was an Elected Representative of Professors at Hacettepe University Law Faculty and a Member of the Academic Board of the Law Faculty as a representative of professors. She was a Member of the Executive Board, the Education Committee, the Publication Committee, the Quality Assurance Committee, and the Bologna Committee of Hacettepe University Law Faculty. She was a Member of the first established Investigation Committee on Discrimination, Harassment, and Mobbing at Hacettepe University
She was a Coordinator of the Civil Servants-Employer Relations Commission, Coordinator of the Employee-Employer Relations Commission at Istanbul Technical University, and Coordinator of the Library of the Istanbul Technical University Management Faculty. She was an Elected Representative of the Research Assistants at the Istanbul Technical University and Elected Representative of the Research Assistants at the Istanbul Technical University Management Faculty. Thus, she was a Member of the Governing Body and the Senate of Istanbul Technical University, a Member of the Executive Board, and the Academic Board of the Management Faculty of Istanbul Technical University as a representative of the research assistants. She was a Member of the Library Committee of the Istanbul Technical University Management Faculty.
STATE SERVICES
Kadriye Bakirci actively took part in reforming Turkish legislation and worked for the Turkish Prime Ministry as a draft legislator on the Public Officials Bill in 2003 and worked for the Employment, Family and Social Policy, and Justice Ministries as a draft legislator on the revision of the Employment Act from a gender perspective, regulating the reconciliation of working and family life in the Employment Act (2011-2013) and drafting the Victim’s Rights Bill (2016-2018). She was a Member of the Women’s Employment Coordination and Monitoring Board of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security (2016).
She is one of the drafters of the Anti-Discrimination, Harassment, and Mobbing Guidelines of several universities including Sabanci, Bosphorus, Istanbul Technical, and Hacettepe Universities.
She was a Member of the Women’s Committee of the National Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye (2019-2023).
She served as a member of the Human Rights Consultants Pool, the Advisory Board, and the Committee on Violence in the World of Work of the National Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkiye (2020-2024). She was a Member of the Human Rights Board of the District of Beyoglu (Istanbul) (2008-2010), a Member of the Committee on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children, and Honour Killing of Governance of Istanbul (2006-2010), and a Member of the Human Rights Board of Governance of Istanbul (2003-2010) which were early human rights and equality bodies of Turkiye.
OTHER SERVICES FOR THE BROADER COMMUNITY
Membership and Contributions to Occupational Institutions: Kadriye Bakirci was a member of the Istanbul Bar Association until 2024. She has served as an expert witness in legal cases since the 2000s.
Voluntary Work: Kadriye Bakirci actively took part in the reforming process of the Constitution of Turkiye, and the social security system, led by the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkiye, Confederation of Public Officials’ Unions, Turkish Medical Association, Turkish Dental Association and Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, the establishment of a national human rights and equality body, and promoting democracy, trade unionism, the rule of law, human rights, welfare, accountability, and transparency in Turkiye. She is the writer of the report Reforming Social Security System in Turkiye commissioned by the Turkish Dental Association of Turkiye (2008). She is one of the contributors to The Principles of a Constitution for Freedom, Equality and Social Democracy book, which was commissioned by the above Unions and Associations in 2009 and written by prominent academics, judges, lawyers, and trade unionists of Turkiye.
She was a pro-bono legal consultant and a member of a Network for home workers (EV-EKSEN) during their struggle to establish their trade unions in Turkiye (2002-2012). She was a member of the Scientific and Advisory Board of the Home Workers Union (2012-2022). She gave training seminars and legal support to domestic workers (EVID-SEN, IMECE) for establishing their trade unions.
She worked regularly with the Turkish Offices of the ILO, COE, UN, UNDP, UNICEF, World Bank, Bar Associations, Workers’ Confederations, Trade Unions, Political Parties, and human, women, children, and migrant rights NGOs to promote the rights of individuals, and to provide voluntary training for them. She gave voluntary lectures on trade union rights for the Social Democracy Academy run by the Social Democracy Foundation (in Istanbul).
She was a voluntary column writer for a women’s newspaper called “KAZETE” in 2005.
She was a founding member of the former Research Assistants Association (1998).