Visiting PhD student | Fall 2025

Contact : Ozlem.Lakatos@unige.ch 

Presentation

Trained in law and political science, Özlem Lakatos studied at the Universities of Geneva (Switzerland), Brussels (Belgium), Moncton (Canada), and Amiens (France). She is an interdisciplinary researcher and a PhD candidate in Social Sciences at the University of Geneva. Her research focuses on the United Nations system, with a particular interest in women’s rights and children’s rights. Within this framework, she explores the production of norms, discourses, and representations related to girls.

She was a visiting research fellow at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the City University of New York (2024–2025), a research assistant and later a scientific collaborator at the Centre for Children’s Rights at the University of Geneva (2017–2024), and a junior researcher at the French Ministry of Defense in Paris (2017). During her graduate studies, she completed several internships with international organizations (Council of Europe, United Nations, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie) and worked as a student-assistant (in political science and French as a foreign language).

Özlem has also volunteered with NGOs in Senegal, Bulgaria, and the United Kingdom. She is the co-founder of the 30 Years of Children’s Rights association in Geneva, a former youth councillor for the City of Amiens and the Picardy region, and an alumna of the Global Shapers Community of the World Economic Forum.

Areas of expertise

• United Nations system
• Human rights: women’s rights, children’s rights
• International norm production and diffusion: agenda setting, norm entrepreneurs, norm making, dissemination processes
• Critical approaches: gender studies, postcolonialism, intersectionality, genealogy
• Qualitative methods: archival research, interviews, field observations

Publications

Lakatos, Ö. & Lott, N. (2025). Girls and the Right to Play: A Question of Equality, and More. In  Lott, N. (Ed.) The Interdependence and the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Understanding the Relationship of the Right to Play with other Convention Rights. Springer. (à paraître)

Jaffé, Ph.D., Zermatten, J. & Lakatos, Ö (2023). Government, Policy and the Role of the State in Childhood (Switzerland). Bloomsbury Education and Childhood Studies. Bloomsbury Academic. London. DOI: 10.5040/9781350887770.007

Lakatos, Ö. & Jaffé, Ph. D. (2021). Childrenʼs Rights and Womenʼs Rights: Convergence and Complementarity. In Womenʹs Rights and Childrenʹs Rights : Towards an integrated approach in Development Cooperation (pp. 12-26). Enfants du Monde and University of Geneva. 

Lakatos, Ö. & Jaffé, Ph. D. (2021). Les droits de l’enfant et les droits des femmes : convergence et complémentarité. In Droits des femmes et droits des enfants : Vers une approche intégrée dans la coopération au développement (pp.12-26). Enfants du Monde et Université de Genève.

Jaffé, Ph.D. & Lakatos, Ö. (2019). Children marching towards total participation. . In Zermatten, J. & Jaffé, Ph. D. (Eds.), 30 ans de droits de l'enfant : un nouvel élan pour l'humanité ! (pp. 114-123). Association 30 ans de droits de l’enfant.

Recent presentations

Lakatos, Ö. (2025). Navigating Institutional Practices and Archival Disparity: Investigating the Girl-s (Child) Category in United Nations Archives. 2025 Conference of the Swiss Network of Law and Society (SNLS). University of Bern, Switzerland.

Lakatos, Ö. (2024). The 'Girl-(Child)' Category at the United Nations: Terminology, Actors, and Diffusion, Workshop of the Human Rights Hub. Ralph Bunch Institute for International Studies, City University of New York (CUNY), New York City, USA.

Recents interventions

Lakatos, Ö. (2024, October 11). Interview: International Day of the Girl 2024. Podcast: Girl Speak, Girl Museum.

- (2024, October 11), The International Day of the Girl Child. Child Rights Early Career Researcher Network Blog, online

- (2024, September 27). Round Table Speaker: Protecting & Promoting Human Rights of Youth to Foster Social Inclusion and Integration. International Youth Summit of the Future. The International Social Justice Commission, New York City, USA.

- (2024). Violences basées sur le genre (VBG) et droits de l’enfant. Centre for Children’s Rights Studies, Université de Genève (UNIGE), en ligne.