Who is Vyosa Osmani? Vjosa Osmani as New President of Kosovo

Who is Vyosa Osmani? Vjosa Osmani as New President of Kosovo.... The 120-seat parliament gave 71 votes to Osmani amid an opposition boycott, making her Kosovo’s second female president. Who is Vyosa Osmani?

05-04-2021 01:55

Politicians in Kosovo elected and swore in a new president on Sunday for a five-year term, the Balkan nation’s seventh president, and second female leader, in the post-war period.

The 120-seat parliament, which convened in an extraordinary session for two days, gave 71 votes for Vjosa Osmani, a 38-year-old former parliamentary speaker, in the third round of voting, while 11 votes were invalid.

Who is Vyosa Osmani?

Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu (née Osmani; born 17 May 1982) is a Kosovan politician and jurist serving as the president of Kosovo[a] since April 2021, previously serving in the role in an acting capacity between November 2020 and March 2021. She is the second woman to serve in the position. Osmani previously served as the speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo from February 2020 until March 2021. By law, Osmani must remain an independent politician during her tenure as president, although she has been affiliated with the Democratic League of Kosovo and Guxo in her career.

Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu was born in 1982 in Mitrovica, then a part of the SFR Yugoslavia. She finished elementary and high school in her hometown. Osmani is married and is a mother of twin daughters. In addition to Albanian, she also speaks English, Turkish, Spanish and Bosnian. Osmani is a professor at the University of Pristina and RIT Kosovo. She also taught as a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Osmani completed her bachelor's degree from the University of Prishtina in Kosovo. In 2005 she completed her Master of Laws from the University of Pittsburgh. During that degree, she was twice awarded the Excellence For The Future Award by the university. From 2009-2014 she completed her doctoral studies at the same university, again at the Pittsburgh School of Law.

As a university professor, she teaches courses in the field of International Law in Kosovo, while in America she teaches the subject "State Building and Law: The Kosovo Experience".

Osmani is currently chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Diaspora and Strategic Investments. She has previously served as Chair of the Committee on European Integration and Vice Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Reforms in Kosovo.

She was also honored with the Sheth International Achievement Award by the University of Pittsburgh for her contribution to the human rights field.

Osmani's political career began in her teens, as an activist for the LDK. On 27 August 2009, she was elected Chief of Staff of the then President of the Republic of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu. Osmani has been a member of the Kosovo Assembly from the LDK for three terms, and in the last two terms, she was the most voted woman in Kosovo.