Short Bio
Özlem Zıngıl Kök is a Business and Human Rights scholar and doctoral researcher at the International Doctoral Programme: Business and Human Rights. Her research examines the state duty to protect against corporate human rights abuses in competitive authoritarian regimes, with a focus on Turkey. She brings over 20 years of experience at the intersection of law, advocacy, and social justice. Her professional background includes legal practice, documentation and reporting of human rights violations, and applied research. As a human rights lawyer and former legal programme director at a CSOs in Turkey, she has worked on issues including impunity, corporate accountability, environmental and climate justice, and the defence of civic space in Turkey and beyond. Her work bridges academic research, legal practice, and advocacy, with a strong commitment to using law as a tool for accountability. She collaborates with international networks, civil society organisations, and affected communities to advance human rights and protect fundamental freedoms in both public and private domains.
This research examines how the state duty to protect under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights operates in competitive authoritarian regimes, where democratic institutions remain formally in place but are hollowed out from within. Moving beyond the language of weak states, it asks how business and human rights frameworks should respond when states retain regulatory capacity but use law selectively or politically, shaping the conditions under which corporate-related human rights harms occur.
- Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation and Environmental Defenders in Turkey: Law, Accountability and the Governance of Dissent (Book Chapter) In: Sostenibilidad y actividades empresariales: desafíos normativos en el Derecho internacional, europeo y nacional (a la luz de los nuevos retos geopolíticos), Carlos R. Fernández Liesa and Carmen Márquez Carrasco, eds. In press
- After the Apelasis: Memory and Absence in Istanbul (Book Chapter) In: Prof. Dr. Turgut Turgut Tarhanlı’ya Armağan: Politika, Ekonomi ve Toplum Kesişiminde Hukuk ve İnsan (2026, in Turkish, Oniki Levha Yayınları)
- Law in the Shadow of Security: Violations of the Right to Life of Children and Youth in the Kurdish Region of Turkey (2000–2015) (Co-Author and Editor) (2025, in Turkish and English, Truth Justice Memory Center)
- Seeking Environmental Justice through Legal Means (Lead Researcher and Author) (2024, in Turkish and English, Center for Spatial Justice)