Asst. Prof. Betül Durmuş

Education

Bachelor’s Degree: Law, Bilkent University, 2013

Master’s Degree: Public Law, Koç University, 2016

PhD: Public Law, Koç University, 2022. Visiting PhD student at the Hertie School in Berlin (April-July 2019) and at the University of Essex (July 2016 – May 2017)

Areas of Expertise

Judicial Interpretation of Human Rights

UN Human Rights Law

Children’s Rights

Employment History

Assistant Professor

09/2026 – Present

Bilkent University, Faculty of Law

Postdoctoral Researcher

04/2023 – 03/2026

Hertie School Centre for Fundamental Rights

Project: “Deep Impact through Soft Jurisprudence? The Contribution of United Nations Treaty Body Case Law to the Development of International Human Rights Law” (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Grant)

Teaching and Research Assistant

02/2018 – 11/2022

Koç University Law School, Public International Law

Scholarly Activities

Associate Editor

2023 – Present

Oxford Reports on International Law: UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies

Human Rights Law Case Reporter

2021 – 2023 & 2015 – 2017

Hertie School Centre for Fundamental Rights / Koç University Centre for Global Public Law & Oxford University Press

Conferences and Workshops

Panelist at the Roundtable on “The Role of the ECtHR: Progressive, Conservative, or Both?” at ELU-S 2025 Conference, Charles University, Czech Republic, 27 September 2025.
“Setting a New Paradigm? ‘Relational Victimhood’ before the UN Treaty Bodies”, at the Pre-Conference Workshop of the Interest Group on International Human Rights Law on “The Reconstruction of Victimhood in International Human Rights Law”, European Society of International (ESIL) Annual Conference, Berlin, 11 September 2025.
“Child Protection as a Legitimate Aim? Comparing the Responses of the UN Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights to LGBTQ+ Rights Backlash”, at
“Legitimate Aims and Ulterior Purposes in International Human rights law” Workshop, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Oxford, 13 November 2024.
“Determining Limits to Positive Obligations: A Holistic View on the United Nations Treaty Body Jurisprudence”, at “From Protection to Coercion: The Limits of Positive Obligations in Human Rights Law” Workshop, Lund University, Sweden, 4 October 2024.
“Shifting Conceptions: From Natural to Fiduciary Parenthood in International Human Rights Law”, at “‘The Natural’ in International Law” Workshop, co-organized by the Geneva Graduate Institute, the Asia School of Business and the Amsterdam Center for International Law, Amsterdam, 9 September 2022.
“The Under-Theorization of Children’s Rights: The Lessons from a Practice-Oriented Approach to International Human Rights Law” at the 7th Children’s Rights Research Symposium, Liverpool, 17 December 2019.
“Judicial Self-Government as Constitutional Politics: The Case of Turkey”, at “The Rise of Judicial Self-Government in Europe: Changing the Architecture of Separation of Powers without an Architect (JUDI-ARCH)” Workshop, Prague, October 2017.
“Investment Tribunals’ Turn to International Human Rights Law: A Quest for a Guide to Self-Development?” Human Rights Research Students Conference, Essex, July 2017.
“Does the Turkish Constitutional Court Guard Freedom of the Press? An Assessment of the Individual Complaint Case Law”, at the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) Annual Conference, Copenhagen, 7 July 2017.
“Testing the Adequacy of Home-Grown Norms: The Notion of ‘Indirect Discrimination’ before the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies”, The Sixth Annual Conference of the American Society of Comparative Law Younger Comparativists Committee, Istanbul, April 2017.

Invited Lectures

“Human Rights in the UN System” and “Diverse Voices and Fragmentation within the UN System” as part of the Graduate Course on Human Rights and Global Governance: Key Challenges, Hertie School, Berlin, 5 and 12 March 2026.
“Individual Application to Turkish Constitutional Court” as part of the Undergraduate course on Constitutional Law, Boğaziçi University Department of Political Science and International Relations, April 2023 and March 2024.

Invited Talks

Speaker at “Access to Justice: Tackling Discrimination” Webinar, organised by Matrix Chambers and Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (online), 7 May 2025.
“Children before the International Human Rights Organs: Representation or Direct Participation?”, International Conference on Access to Justice organised by the Turkish Union of Bar Associations, Atılım University and Association for Monitoring Equal Rights, Ankara, 22 October 2022.
“United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms and Turkey: Key Decisions”, Effective Use of UN Human Rights Protection System by Lawyers in Turkey- International Training Workshop, organized by the International Commission of Jurists (online), June 2022.
“Türkiye ve Çocuk Hakları Komitesi: Devlet Raporları, Sonuç Gözlemleri ve Bireysel Başvurular” (Turkey and the Committee on the Rights of the Child: State Reports, ConcludingObservations and Individual Applications), Panel on Children’s Rights, organized by Galatasaray University, Istanbul, 22 April 2022
“Turkey’s Ambivalent Relationship with the International Human Rights System” with Başak Çalı and İlayda Eskitaşçıoğlu, Panel Series on Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Turkey co-organized by Law & Society Institute and Center for Comparative Research on Democracy, Humboldt Universitat zu Berlin (online), May 2021.
“The Cases against Turkey before the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies” (in Turkish) Workshop on the Implementation of the United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms in Turkey, organized by the International Commission of Jurists and Human Rights Joint Platform, İzmir, October 2019.
“The Prohibition on Discrimination in International Human Rights Law” Bilkent University Faculty of Law Alumni Conferences, Ankara, March 2019.

Awards and Scholarships

Certificate of Participation at the 2022 International Rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International
Law Moot Court Competition as a coach of Koç University’s Team (the winner of Turkish
National Rounds)
Hertie School in Berlin PhD Global fund for visiting PhD students (2019)
Koç University PhD Scholarship (2016 – 2022)
Koç University Graduate School of Social Sciences & Humanities Graduate Studies Research
Excellence Award (2016)
Koç University Masters Scholarship (2013 – 2016)
Bilkent University Undergraduate Full Scholarship (2008 – 2013)
The Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Merits-based Scholarship (2008 – 2013)

Service

Mentor as part of Hertie School First Generation Mentoring Programme (September 2025 – present)
Co-organizing Fundamental Rights Research Colloquium “Fundamental Rights and (Anti)Discrimination” at Hertie School Centre for Fundamental Rights (October – December 2024)
Organizing the webinar “Impact of UN Human Rights Treaties on Turkey” (in Turkish) at Koç University Centre for Global Public Law (October 2020)

Training

Ethics of AI Online Masterclass, The London School of Economics and Political Science (online), March 2026.
Introduction to Teaching in Higher Education, Hertie School (online), September 2024.
Workshop on Research Methods in Fundamental Rights, Hertie School (online), August 2020.
Human Rights Summer School on Research Methods and Making Technology Work for Human Rights Professionals, University of Essex (Essex, United Kingdom), July 2016.
Global Minority Rights Summer School, Tom Lantos Institute (Budapest, Hungary), July 2014.

Ph.D. Dissertation

International Human Rights Law and the Child’s Upbringing: Reconciling Children’s Rights, Parental Control Rights and State Interests, 2022

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Başak Çalı, Koç University.

Published Book

“Leading Cases in United Nations Human Rights Law”, Başak Çalı, Alexandre Skander Galand, Betül Durmuş and Ignatius Yordan Nugraha, (under contract)

Makaleler

Misappropriation of Children’s Rights as a Legitimate Aim?: Comparing the Responses of the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee to LGBTQ+ Rights Backlash, Human Rights Law Review, 26 (1) (2026).
Judicial Self-Government as Experimental Constitutional Politics: The Case of Turkey, (with Başak Çalı) German Law Journal 19 (7) 1671-1706 (2018).

Blog Posts

How ‘Relevant’ are UN Treaty Body Views for the European Court of Human Rights’ Progress?, Strasbourg Observers, 19 December 2025.
The Russian ‘Anti-Gay Propaganda Law’ Going Online: Klimova and others as a Mixed Picture, Strasbourg Observers, 30 May 2025.
Judicial Stereotypes on Female Sexuality and Reproduction: Nurcan Bayraktar v Türkiye, Strasbourg Observers, 2 November 2023.
The CERD stands firm against racist hate speech: Jallow v. Denmark, EJIL-Talk!, 2 July 2023.
Cupiał v Poland: What Could This Case Offer On Religious Upbringing?, Strasbourg Observers, 4 May 2023.
The Effects of International Human Rights Law on International Investment Law, Koç University Center for Global Public Law Blog, 19 December 2017.
Two Paths to Transitional Justice: A Comparison of the European Court of Human Rights and the Human Rights Committee’s Approaches to Bosnian Enforced Disappearance Cases, Koç University Center for Global Public Law Blog, 11 May 2017.

Case Reports

23 reports of the United Nations human rights treaty body cases published on Oxford Reports on International Law (2015 – 2023).

Selected reports:

1. S.H. v Bosnia and Herzegovina Admissibility and merits, UN Doc CEDAW/C/76/D/116/2017, IHRL 3984 (CEDAW 2020)
2. YB and NS (on behalf of CE) v Belgium Merits, Communication No 12/2017, UN Doc CRC/C/79/D/12/2017, IHRL 4186 (CRC 2018)
3. X v Tanzania Communication No 22/2014, UN Doc CRPD/C/18/D/22/2014, IHRL 4189 (CRPD 2017)
4. Yrusta and Yrusta v Argentina (Merits, UN Doc CED/C/10/D/1/2013, IHRL 4087 (CED 2016)
5. TBB-Turkish Union in Berlin/Brandenburg v Germany Merits, Communication No 48/2010, UN Doc CERD/C/82/D/48/2010, CERD/C/82/3, IHRL 3835 (CERD 2013)

Other Research Outputs

Impact of the United Nations Human Rights Treaties in Turkey: 1999-2020, Başak Çalı, Betül Durmuş, İlayda Eskitaşçıoğlu, Koç University Centre for Global Public Law Report (in collaboration with the University of Pretoria), October 2020.
Anayasa Mahkemesi’ne Bireysel Başvuru Yolunun Anayasal Yoruma, Uluslararası İnsan Hakları Yorumuna ve Yargı Sistemine Etkileri: 2012-2017 Yıllarına İlişkin Yargısal Örüntülerin Karşılaştırmalı Analizi, Bertil Emrah Oder, Başak Çalı, Betül Durmuş, Levent Emre Özgüç, Mehmet Utku Öztürk, Sümeyye Elif Biber, TÜBİTAK 1001 Araştırma Projesi No: 115K449 Final Raporu, December 2017.
The Effects of International Human Rights Law on Other Branches of Public International Law: An Annotated Compilation of Case-law, Başak Çalı, Lorna McGregor, Alexandre Skander Galand, Betül Durmuş veIrina Crivet, October 2017.
The Effects of International Human Rights Law (IHRL) on International Law: A Bibliography, Başak Çalı, Lorna McGregor, Alexandre Skander Galand, Valentina Azarova, Betül Durmuş, Irina Crivet and Zeynep Elibol, October 2017.
Bireysel Başvuru Kararlarında Demokratik Toplumda Gereklilik Ölçütü, Güncel Hukuk, Ekim 2016.