Türkiye Team
Radu Mares
Radu has a background in human rights law, specializing in the business and human rights area, with a focus on regulatory and compliance issues raised by multinational enterprises in developing countries. His main research interest is the protection of human rights through economic relations. Some questions that have engaged Radu for a long time are:
- How does the international human rights system accommodate and interact with the fragmented, overlapping and dynamic landscape of responsible business conduct?
- How does the shift from corporate voluntarism to hard law happen and how do companies affect the emergence, institutionalization, and diffusion of norms of social responsibility?
- Can complex regulatory regimes that reject the ‘command-and-control’ approach deliver on their promise to achieve corporate compliance and respect for human rights?
Radu’s research draws on economic law, corporate governance, risk management, regulatory pluralism and global governance. He has also conducted field work in mining areas in Ghana and Peru. His current focus is on the EU green transition, and the impacts of this legislative framework on human rights and environmental protection globally through EU value chains.
Radu is an Associate Professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights, the director of the Research and Education Department, and the thematic leader for the Business and Human Rights area at RWI. He is a Doctor of Law (PhD) and a Docent in the Faculty of Law at Lund University. Radu contributes to RWI capacity-strengthening programs for academics, businesses and/or governmental actors in China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Estonia and Belarus, and Asia region. Since 2007 he has taught and supervised at Lund University’s Faculty of Law and more recently at the Economics Faculty. Radu values opportunities to collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines, to explore new linkages between economics and human rights, in education, research, and outreach.
For further updates on his research, please refer to his Research profile:
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/radu-mares
Isis Sartori Reis
Isis Sartori Reis is a Senior Programme Officer at RWI in Lund, where she works on the implementation and results monitoring of several projects. Since joining the organisation in 2017, she has contributed to initiatives focusing on Zimbabwe, Global China, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Türkiye, and Regional Africa. In addition to her work with programmes, Isis teaches master’s level students as part of RWI’s Human Rights in Practice course at Lund University’s International Human Rights Law LL.M Programme and the Human Rights Studies Master’s Programme. Isis has a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and a M.S. in Asian Studies from Lund University.
İpek Benek
İpek Benek is a Programme Officer at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for the Türkiye pilot project supporting public institutions’ engagement with the European Green Deal, corporate sustainability, and the social dimensions of the green transition.
İpek has over ten years of experience in international cooperation and programme management, most recently at GIZ Türkiye where she coordinated projects at the intersection of responsible business conduct, human rights and environmental due diligence, and sustainable supply chains. Her work has involved close collaboration with Turkish public institutions, business associations, companies, civil society and international partners.
Before joining GIZ, İpek worked in environmental policy research in the UK and held roles related to energy markets and international economic relations. She holds a Master of Public Administration in Public and Economic Policy from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a double major in Economics and International Relations from Koç University.
İpek is passionate about climate justice, inclusive development and building practical partnerships that help translate human rights standards into meaningful change. She is based in Ankara.