Yannakoudakis worked to support efforts to find people who went missing during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and Cypriot intercommunal violence. She was a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights. She has campaigned for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Cyprus. She met and received assurances from Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Derviş Eroğlu that he would sign a repeal of the gay ban into law and by putting pressure on the authorities in the north she was instrumental in overturning the anti-gay law.