Şafak Pavey

Şafak Pavey    ( diplomat,  politician)
Born	Şafak Önal 10 July 1976
Nationality	Turkish
Alma mater	•  Bilkent University •  University of Westminster •  London School of Economics
Member of	European Council on Foreign Relations, Munich Security Conference/Young Leaders, WEF/Young Global Leaders/2015
Party	Property "Has politicalParty" (as page type) with input value "Republican People's Party|Republican People's Party" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.[[Republican People's Party|“Republican People's Party”]]
The first disabled woman in the Turkish parliament. Worked many years with NGOs in Iran and with Shirin Ebadi.  Member of the Grand National Assembly In office 12 June 2011 - 25 October 2017

Şafak Pavey is a Turkish diplomat, columnist and politician. She was a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) representing Istanbul Province She is the first disabled woman ever elected to the Turkish parliament, and is a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Pavey worked many years with NGOs in Iran and with Shirin Ebadi. She attended the 2013 Bilderberg meeting. She was selected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2015.

Education

She married English musician Paul Pavey, whom she met in Ankara in 1994 while studying political science at Bilkent University.

Safak's academic background include graduate & postgraduate degrees in international relations and EU studies, specializing in "nationalism, ethnicity and minority rights" particularly "Property Rights of Non-Muslims in Islamic Countries" at the London School of Economics, and arts, film and media studies in Switzerland. She was left disabled after an accident while studying art and film in Zurich, which left her with one arm and leg.

Career

She started working for various NGOs, developing national programs and international advocacy campaigns for human rights issues. Between 2003 and 2010, Safak worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She was the commissioner’s agent in Iran and Afghanistan. She was later assigned as the Central European Chief Agent of the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Immigrants in Hungary.

After fifteen years living abroad, she left her position at the United Nations and was elected as Deputy of Istanbul at the 2011 elections in Turkey. As part of her parliamentary work, she was a member of the Turkey-EU-Accession Committee.

She resigned from parliament in 2017 due to health reasons.

Pavey has published three books, including Nereye Gidersem Gokyuzu Benimdir (Wherever I go the Sky is Mine) published in November 2011, consisting of her recollections of social life and a witness account of social freedoms in Iran where she lived for some years.

Safak is also the managerial editor of a legal book "Refugee Rights in Iran" by 2003 Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi with whom she worked with for several years.

Awards

Şafak Pavey was awarded a Woman of Courage Award by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2013	6 June 2013	9 June 2013	Watford UK	The 2013 Bilderberg group meeting.
Brussels Forum/2014	21 March 2014	24 March 2014	Belgium Brussels	Yearly discreet get-together of huge amount of transatlantic politicians, media and military and corporations, under the auspices of the CIA-close German Marshall Fund. The theme in 2014 was A World in Transition
Dialog/2022	1 December 2022	4 December 2022	US California Santa Barbara The Ritz Carlton Bacara	The 2022 meeting of a secretive, invite-only network founded by Peter Thiel.
Munich Security Conference/2020	14 February 2020	16 February 2020	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 56th Munich Security Conference, in 2020, "welcomed an unprecedented number of high-ranking international decision-makers." Slightly over 1/3 of them have pages.
Munich Security Conference/2026	13 February 2026	15 February 2026	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 2026 Munich Security Conference had as theme "Under destruction". The solution is - as always - more spending on weapons
WEF/Annual Meeting/2016	20 January 2016	23 January 2016	Switzerland WEF	Attended by over 2500 people, both leaders and followers, who were explained how the Fourth Industrial Revolution would changed everything, including being a "revolution of values".

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.