Şafak Pavey

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Şafak Pavey (center) with Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton at the 2012 International Women of Courage Award ceremony

Şafak Pavey (born July 10, 1976 in Ankara ) is a Turkish diplomat, columnist and politician. She was a MP for Istanbul in the Grand National Assembly as a member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). She was the first disabled woman ever to be elected to a Turkish parliament and is a member of the " United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities". In 2012, Pavey received the United States Department of State's International Women of Courage Award .

Origin and education

Şafak Pavey was born to Şahin and Ayşe Önal , a well-known journalist and writer. In 1994 Pavey moved to Switzerland with her husband to study art and film. In 1996 Pavey lost her left arm and leg in a train accident in Zurich . A year later she went to London to pursue her university education. She studied International Relations at Westminster University and completed her post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics .

In an interview with the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet , Pavey stated that Deniz Gezmiş was a maternal cousin.

Career

Pavey served in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and was responsible for foreign relations and humanitarian aid in countries such as Algeria , Egypt , Iran , Lebanon and Syria . She worked as the UNHCR's spokesperson for Central Europe in Hungary and later as the head of the corporate secretariat of the Human Rights Treaty at the High Commissioner for Human Rights .

She was a columnist for the Istanbul- based bilingual Armenian-Turkish weekly Agos , and has written more than three books. She has also carried out joint projects with Harvard University , the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Norwegian Design Council. The book 13 Numarali Peron (“Platform number 13”), which tells the experience of the train accident and was written together with her mother Ayşe Önal, became a bestseller in Turkey. She also worked with the writer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi on the book “Refugee Rights in Iran”.

After living abroad for fifteen years, Pavey returned to Turkey in 2011 and ran for a parliamentary seat in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. She was elected MP for Istanbul Province in 2012 as a member of the Republican People's Party , making her the first disabled member of the Turkish Parliament. As part of her parliamentary work, she is also a member of the Turkey-EU Accession Committee , the Joint EU-Turkey Parliamentary Committee, the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Committee for the Mediterranean Union , the Euro-Med Sub-Committee on Energy, Water and Environment, as well as Vice-Chair of the Turkish Parliamentary friendship group with South Korea and Norway . She has been appointed Vice-Chair of the CHP, responsible for environmental and social policy.

On September 25, 2017, she announced her resignation due to health problems.

honors and awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Safak Pavey bio. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, accessed March 21, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b CHP’s Pavey elected to UN committee. Hürriyet Daily News , September 13, 2012, accessed March 21, 2013 .
  3. ↑ a b c 2012 International Women of Courage Award Winners. United States Department of State, March 5, 2012, accessed March 21, 2013 .
  4. ↑ a b Events and News 2012 | Embassy of the United States Ankara, Turkey. United States Department of State, March 2, 2012, archived from the original on February 20, 2013 ; Retrieved March 21, 2013 .
  5. ^ A b Clinton praises Pavey's tireless passion, energy. Hürriyet Daily News, March 10, 2012, accessed March 21, 2013 .
  6. ↑ a b Jenny White: Citizen Pavey. 3 Quarks Daily, June 20, 2011, accessed March 21, 2013 .
  7. ↑ cumhuriyet.com.tr: "'Bacağımı sadece savaş alanlarında kapattım" (accessed November 24, 2015)
  8. ↑ a b Q&A: Refugee worker turns a disability into an advantage. UNHCR, November 30, 2007, accessed March 21, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Shīrīn ʻIbādī: Refugee Rights in Iran . Saqi, 2008, ISBN 978-0-86356-678-3 , pp. 4 ( online ).
  10. ↑ Anna Sussman: Firebrand Lawmaker Fights for the Rights of the Disabled. Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, June 16, 2011, accessed March 21, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Şafak Pavey milletvekilliğinden istifa etti . ( com.tr [accessed November 23, 2017]).
  12. ↑ Safak Pavey of Turkey selected as one of the 2011 JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World. Junior Chamber International, 2011, archived from the original on January 2, 2014 ; Retrieved March 21, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Pavey, Şafak
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pavey, Shafak; Pavey, Safak
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish politician, UN diplomat and writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Ankara , Turkey