United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women
Dubravka Simonovic, Chair, Commission on the Status of WomenMs. Dubravka Simonovic has been the Minister Plenipotentiary at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Croatia to the United Nations since May 1998. In March 2000, she was elected Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women for a two year term.
Prior to her assignment at the United Nations, Ms Simonovic served from 1997 to April 1998 as Deputy Consul General in New York. From 1994 to 1996 she was Head of the Department for Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Croatia. From 1992 to 1994 she served as Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister in the Government of the Republic of Croatia. From 1988 to 1992, Ms. Simonovic headed the General Administrative Services of the "Vuk Vrhovec" Institute. From 1982 to 1988, she was a legal representative before various courts in her country.
Ms. Simonovic was a member of the Croatian delegation to the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo 1994, and to the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995. She was a member of the Croatian Government Committee for Equality from 1997 to 1999.
Ms. Simonovic was elected in 1999 as a Vice-Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women acting as the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century."
Ms. Simonovic serves as her country's national expert to the Steering Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe and was elected in 1999 as a Member of its Bureau for a two-year term.
Ms. Simonovic holds a Master's degree and a Ph.D in law from the University of Zagreb. She has published two books and numerous articles.