Emine Çolak

Emine Çolak was born in Lefkoşa on 9 March 1958. She gained a law degree from the University of London (SOAS) in 1979 and in 1980 she was qualified as a barrister.

Since 1982 she has been practicing as a lawyer in her own office and specialized in administrative, commercial, family, heritage, human rights and property law fields. Between 1994-2002, she was a member of Lefkoşa Turkish Municipal Council. She was also the coordinator of the committee which discussed laws during the Annan plan process in 2003-2004. She was appointed by the 2nd. President Mehmet Ali Talat as a member of the Supreme Judicial Council responsible for the appointment of judges and efficient functioning of the courts in North Cyprus in 2007 and continued her mission until 2011.

Çolak worked as the Head of the Turkish Cypriot Human Rights Foundation and as a leader of the Non-governmental organizations in the civil society in many fields such as education, children’s rights, women’s rights, patient rights, conflict resolution, human rights, LGBT rights and refugee rights. Since 1990, she has taken place in many bi-communal works. Starting from 2002, Çolak has attended the meetings held in Lefkoşa, İstanbul and Athens as a member of the Turkish-Greek Forum. Çolak knows English very well and speaks reasonable French. She has three children.