Arta Sejdiu

Occupation:

Country Expert on the Western Balkans — Legal Researcher and Human Rights Analyst

Summary

Legal researcher and human rights analyst working on governance, rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights in the Western Balkans. Combines applied legal research, institutional monitoring, policy evaluation and country conditions analysis for asylum and international protection proceedings. Monitoring and evaluation work covers court efficiency, institutional accountability, political participation and the implementation of legal reform across Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Expert consultant to the USAID-supported GERMIN programme in Kosovo, researcher and monitor at Democracy Plus, and project manager and child safeguarding officer at HANDIKOS. Holds a Master's in Educational Management from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and a BA in Sociology with honours from the University of Prishtina. Instructed by legal practitioners in the United Kingdom and the European Union since 2023, with oral evidence before courts and tribunals where required.

Countries of Expertise

Kosovo, Albania and Serbia as the core, with coverage of North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Details of Country Expertise

Country conditions analysis for the Western Balkans grounded in sustained country-specific research, documented cases, verified reporting and direct engagement with civil society actors, legal professionals and institutional stakeholders. The work addresses persecution and protection failures arising from political opinion and political association, weaknesses in law enforcement and judicial independence, prison and detention conditions, discrimination based on religion, ethnicity and minority status, and risks affecting LGBT people despite formal legal protection.

Kosovo. Institutional capacity of police, prosecutors and courts, the position of minority communities, and the practical distance between the law on paper and protection in practice.

Albania. Governance weaknesses and protection failures affecting people exposed to political pressure, discrimination and institutional neglect, including the misuse of administrative and criminal procedure against politically active individuals.

Serbia, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Political intimidation, treatment of minorities and returnees, and the reach of state protection outside the main cities.

Experience

Expert witness and country context analysis, Western Balkans, 2023 to present. Written expert reports and country-context analyses for asylum and human rights proceedings in the United Kingdom and the European Union, with oral evidence where required.

DBU Research Fellow, Institute for School Development Research, TU Dortmund University, 2025 to present.

Expert Consultant, GERMIN, USAID-supported, Kosovo, 2024 to 2025. Evaluation frameworks and policy alignment for civil society organisations.

Project Manager and Child Safeguarding Officer, HANDIKOS, Kosovo, 2022 to 2023. EU and Save the Children funded projects on child protection and disability rights.

Projects Researcher and Monitor, Democracy Plus, Kosovo, 2018 to 2020. Legal, political and institutional data, governance monitoring and research on rule of law.

Co-founder, Speak Out Initiative, Sbunker, 2017 to 2018.

Education

Master's in Educational Management, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, 2025, Stipendium Hungaricum Scholar. BA in Sociology with honours, University of Prishtina, 2018. Exchange semester, University of Bialystok, Poland, 2017.

Languages

Albanian (native), English (C2), Serbian, German, Hungarian and Polish (basic).