Dr. Rabia İlay Peerzada
Board Member, Founding Member
Rabia İlay Akbulut Peerzada completed her undergraduate studies at Ankara University Faculty of Law between 2002 and 2006. After her legal internship, she spent two years in the United Kingdom (2008-2010) on a postgraduate education scholarship provided by the Ministry of National Education. During this time, she attended a one-year English language program at EF-Cambridge Language School and Leicester University Language School. In 2009-2010, she completed her master’s degree at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law with a thesis titled "Religious Dress in Public Spaces: A Comparative and Critical Analysis of Turkey, France, and the United Kingdom."
In return for her postgraduate scholarship, she worked as a civil servant at the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education and later fulfilled her mandatory service as a lawyer at the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO). Driven by her passion for learning, teaching, and writing, she decided to leave her role at TPAO and return to academia. In 2013, she joined Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Faculty of Law as a research assistant in the Department of International Law and began her doctoral studies in public law at Bilkent University's Institute of Economics and Social Sciences.
Her doctoral dissertation, titled "The Right to Food in International Law," was supervised by Professor Dr. Erdal Onar and Professor Dr. Hilal Elver, who served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2014 to 2020. During her doctoral research, she was awarded a TÜBİTAK doctoral research scholarship and worked as a visiting researcher at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge.
After successfully completing her Ph.D. in August 2019, she resigned from her position at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University and relocated to London. A researcher specializing in international human rights law, with a particular focus on the rights of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, she continues to reflect on the human condition and global issues in her work and life.
