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GONUL BASARAN ERONEN:
Country: the Turkish Republic of Northen Cyprus
Profession: Justice
Gönül Erönen was born and educated in London, United Kingdom to Turkish Cypriot parents. At the age of 7
she decided to do law. She detested injustice of every sort and believed in the ideal notion of justice.
To this end she qualified as a Barrister-at-Law from the Council of Legal Education in 1975 as a Member
of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn Court of Law. Seeing the plight of the Turkish Cypriots she
decided to come home to her roots and use her services to help her people. She came to Cyprus in 1975 and
passed the Turkish Cypriot Bar Examinations in 1976. She then did her pupillage at the Law chambers of
Ümit Süleyman Onan setting up her law practice in 1977.
When she came to North Cyprus she became a member of the Turkish Cypriot Human Rights Committee from 1980
until 1992 and also took part in the activities of the North Cyprus Strategic Research Centre (NGO). While
pursuing her law practice and before becoming a judge she was a part-time English newsreader on Turkish
Cypriot BRT Television from 1976 until Jan.1980. She married an Architect in 1977 and has two sons.
On 29/2/80 she was appointed to the Turkish Cypriot Bench as the first female District Court Judge on the
island of Cyprus. On 1/4/1986 she was promoted to Senior District Court Judge. On 1/7/1992 she was
promoted to President of District Court. As President, she resided on the Assize Court from 26/10/76 to
14/9/93. From 15/9/93 until 2/1/94 she sat as President of the District Court of Kyrenia (present day Girne). On 3/1/94 she
was appointed as the first female and youngest justice of the Turkish Cypriot Supreme Court Bench.
She is today the only female justice of the Supreme Court on the whole island of Cyprus. Being the 7th of
8 Turkish Cypriot Supreme Court Justices she deals with administrative reviews, appeal cases, sits as a
court of first instance and sometimes resides as a member of the Constitutional Court, which is composed
of 5 Justices.
She is a member of the Turkish Cypriot Supreme Council of Judicature, a member of the Turkish Cypriot
Legal Board, a member of the Turkish Cypriot Supreme Electoral Commission of North Cyprus, a member of
the Bar Council of England and Wales.
She belongs to various social cultural and professional institutions. She is a member and the liaison in
North Cyprus of the International Association of Women Judges and International Women Judges Foundation
(IAWJ); a member of the Society for International Development - Lefkosa Chapter (SID); a member of the
Turkish Cypriot University Women's Association; a member of the National Trust of North Cyprus; a member
of the Anglo-Turkish Association of North Cyprus. She is also a member of the Turkish Cypriot-French
Cultural Association; an honourary member of the Austrian based - Verein der Freunde von Nordzypern-
(Friends of North Cyprus Association). And, she is Chairperson of the Turkish Cypriot Football
Association's Arbitration Board, which acts as an appeal tribunal from complaints against the Cyprus
Turkish Football Association.
Being a person who believes in dialogue, she is active in promoting acceptance and respect for the rights
of the Turkish Cypriot people, with a view to a possible settlement on the island of Cyprus. She has
helped in the work of organisations such as IWRAW (International Women's Rights Action Watch) in
compiling information on Turkish Cypriot women.
Her other activities involve charity work and she is a member of the Executive Committee of the
Charity "HELP".
In 1989 she visited the USA as an International Visitor and for 7 weeks in July-August 1997 in the USA,
she took part in a Fulbright Short-term Training programme entitled "Administration of Justice under a
Federal System". She has also taken part in a Cyprus Conflict Management Training programme and in a
Conflict Resolution programme in 1994 in Coolfont, Virginia, USA, organised by The Institute of
Multi-Track Diplomacy. She did "Humanistic Transformative Mediation" training under the guidance of
Fulbright Scholar Marco Turk and has seen the benefit in continuing this type of training.
She represented the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the World Women's Conference in Beijing, China
in 1995. She was also able to attend the Biennial Conference of the International Association of Women
Judges (IAWJ) in Ottawa, Canada, entitled "Vision for a Non-Violent World–Justice for Every Child". In
October of 1998 she attended the 1998 conference of The International Association of Centres for Federal
Studies (IACFS) entitled "Federalism and Peacemaking" in Jerusalem, Israel.
Awards:
-1999 Award for the Most Successful Woman in the Legal field given by the Women’s Research and Education
Centre of the Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta (present day Gazi Magosa)
-2000 Daughters of Ataturk Turco-North Cyprus Woman Achievement Award for contributions to the Turco-
North Cyprus community as well as the International Turkish community. TRNC Award
Married to ARIBA Architect Yücem Erönen and has two sons, Orhan (17) and Enver (22).
She hopes to be able to serve on the Bench for as long as she can, enhancing the quality of law and
justice in North Cyprus.
Sema Karaoglu |
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