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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. 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
- Nicosia 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.
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.
- "Liberty"
- a speech given by Justice Erönen at the American Society of North
Cyprus Thanksgiving Dinner on 25 November 1999 at Dome Hotel, Kyrenia, North
Cyprus.
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