Cigdem Cimrin is a legal scholar and practitioner with deep-rooted expertise in business and human rights (BHR), and a dedicated advocate for corporate accountability and access to remedy. She is the Co-Founder and Secretary General of the Business and Human Rights Association Türkiye (BHRTR), the country’s first civil society organization solely focused on advancing responsible business conduct and embedding human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) into supply chains and corporate practices.
Cigdem’s work through BHRTR is grounded in the belief that rights-holders must be centered in efforts to transform business behavior. Through collaborative engagement with civil society, public institutions, development agencies and international networks, she guides efforts to promote inclusive policy development, facilitate meaningful stakeholder participation, and improve the accessibility and legitimacy of grievance and remedy mechanisms.
She has led or co-developed pioneering initiatives focused on strengthening the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles, aligning local practice with the EU’s evolving regulatory landscape (CSDDD, CSRD, LkSG, Forced Labour Regulation, Taxonomy), and empowering civil society to use tools like the OECD Guidelines for holding companies accountable and promoting corporate responsibility to respect human rights. As part of her efforts to localize international standards, she led the official Turkish translations of the UN Guiding Principles and the Interpretive Guide—crucial resources for rights-based engagement and corporate accountability in the region. Her academic background includes a Ph.D. in Public Law with the first thesis in Türkiye on HREDD and corporate responsibility, and she currently pursues an M.A. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Harvard University, deepening her understanding of the systemic drivers of responsible conduct.
Cigdem brings to the OECD Watch Coordination Committee a practitioner’s lens shaped by grassroots realities and a strategic vision shaped by transnational policy engagement. With particular experience in the Global South and the MENA+T (Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye) region, she is committed to strengthening the effectiveness of the OECD Guidelines and NCP system so that it delivers tangible remedy for workers and communities, supports a rights-based approach to corporate accountability, and contributes to a just transition that leaves no one behind.
