Resume
Lawyer, Consultant, Activist, and Author
She was born in Istanbul in 1967. She graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Law and Istanbul University Department of Social Works.
She held various managerial positions in the retail industry in the first ten years of his working life. She has been working as a lawyer in IP Law since 2000.
She was one of the founders of the first unions and professional associations in cinema and TV. She served as a consultant in non-governmental organizations and carried out studies and cases on artists' rights.
In addition to her business life, she has been working on issues such as the Autism Action Plan, organizations in the field of autism, and the development of policies regarding disability rights in the Turkish Grand National Assembly and various political parties since 2009.
She is the founding president of the Istanbul Autism Volunteers Association. Her articles have been published in multiple newspapers and magazines. Her first book, Cat's Eye, was published in 2017.
Works in the field of autism
Sedef Erken started working as a volunteer in civil society activities 3 months after her son Ozan was diagnosed with autism. Having carried out activism in the field of artists' rights in previous years, she entered this field by producing projects on some issues in which she has experience. In her first year, she completed all the production processes of 2 autism awareness films. The following year, she carried out a project called "I am here, I'm also a citizen," emphasizing the constitutional citizenship rights of individuals with autism. Within this project's scope, a photography exhibition, an awareness film, and various social media campaigns were organized.
In 2011, she filed Turkey's first "discrimination against an autistic person and violation of the right to education" lawsuit because her son was not accepted to the kindergarten class due to his autism. Since this case did not conclude in Turkey, she took it to the European Court of Human Rights. She organized a one-day demonstration by setting up a children's tent in front of the ECHR court to announce the case in Strasbourg and ensured that the issue was heard by Turkish and international media.
At the same time, this case had a significant impact in Turkey and inspired many families, marking a first in terms of defending the educational rights of individuals with autism.
While the case was ongoing, Sedef Erken met with the then Minister of Family and presented the report she had prepared, titled "Autism in Turkey, Problems, Solution Suggestions, and Expectations," to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the relevant minister. With this report, she proposed to the ministry to prepare Turkey's first Autism Action Plan, accepted that day, and the work started.
During this period, she continued as the spokesperson of the Autism Platform and undertook the establishment of the Federation of Autism Associations, Turkey's first autism federation. When the federation was established, it established a legal unit for this federation with the revenue it collected and worked to strengthen its rights defense approach.
After this stage, she started to work in the field of autistic individuals in the most challenging situations and in care centers, especially those who did not receive a good education during childhood, most of whom could never leave their homes. She focused on the issue of these nursing homes where human rights violations occurred.
She founded the Istanbul Autism Volunteers Association, which is the first association in Turkey that is most prominent in the human rights field of autism. It focuses on rights defense in the strongest way and regularly continues its legal studies within the entire field of autism. She has been currently the president, for 3 terms.
Together with Denizli Autism Association, she is the executive of the project called "Together We Are Strong Against Discrimination," which develops the rights defense capacity of autism associations.
She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Political Science.