Professional Affiliation

Project Director, Freedom House        

Expert Bio

Mr. Jurkonis is a project director at Freedom House and leads its Vilnius office. He lectures at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University since 2006. Vytis Jurkonis is primarily known as the expert of Belarus related issues, Eastern Partnership region and Russia as well as Lithuanian foreign policy, however his previous engagements also included fact-finding missions to and trainings for civil society activists and human rights defenders in Afghanistan, Cuba, Burma and Georgia.

Prior to joining Freedom House, Vytis Jurkonis led the Policy Analysis and Research Division at Vilnius based think-tank Eastern European Studies Centre and was a national researcher for European Foreign Policy Scorecard by the European Council on Foreign Relations. He also participated in the premier professional exchange visit within International Visitor Leadership Program by the U.S. State Department and holds an expert diploma of the Institute of Human Rights of the Law Faculty of the Complutense University. Vytis Jurkonis received “Lithuanian Diplomacy Star”, the highest decoration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, in 2018 for promoting human rights in Central and Eastern Europe.