Ivan Šimonović is a Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n diplomat, politician and law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 scholar. He was in October 2008 appointed Justice Minister

Justice Minister

A justice ministry is a ministry or other government agency charged with justice. The ministry is often headed by a minister for justice or secretary of justice or secretary for justice; sometimes the head of a department of justice is entitled attorney general.Specific duties may relate to...

 of Croatia. On May 3, 2010, Šimonović was appointed UN Assistant Secretary-General for human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

.

Biography

Šimonović graduated from the University of Zagreb

University of Zagreb

The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...

 Law School in 1982. He obtained a doctoral degree in 1990, at the age of 31. Šimonović joined Croatian diplomacy after the break-up of Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

. He was an assistant to Foreign Minister Mate Granić

Mate Granic

Mate Granić is a Croatian diplomat and politician who was part of the Croatian Government in much of the 1990s.Granić was born in Baška Voda in Dalmatia...

 during the 1990s, although he never joined the ruling party, the Croatian Democratic Union

Croatian Democratic Union

The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...

 (HDZ).

In 1997, Croatian President Franjo Tuđman named him ambassador to the United Nations. Šimonović served there until 2002. While serving there, Šimonović presided over the United Nations Economic and Social Council

United Nations Economic and Social Council

The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations constitutes one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and it is responsible for the coordination of the economic, social and related work of 14 UN specialized agencies, its functional commissions and five regional commissions...

.

In 2002 he became Deputy Foreign Minister in Ivica Račan

Ivica Racan

Ivica Račan was a Croatian career politician, leader of the League of Communists of Croatia and later Social Democratic Party from 1989 to 2007...

 government. Again, he didn't join the ruling party, SDP

Social Democratic Party of Croatia

Social Democratic Party of Croatia , commonly referred to in Croatia as simply Social Democratic Party , is the largest centre-left political party in Croatia...

. However, when HDZ swung back to power in 2003, Šimonović was not offered a job in the new government.

In 2004, Šimonović became a professor at the University of Zagreb Law School, where he teaches general theory of law and state and international relations.

Šimonović was appointed Minister of Justice-designate of Croatia by PM Ivo Sanader on October 6, 2008. His predecessor, Ana Lovrin

Ana Lovrin

Ana Lovrin , is a Croatian politician. She held the post of Minister of Justice in the first and second cabinets under Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, from February 2006 to October 2008....

, had resigned the same day following a series of unsolved assaults and murders linked to Croatian organized crime that culminated with the murder of Ivana Hodak, daughter of a prominent Croatian lawyer Zvonimir Hodak. However, Ivana Hodak was later found to have been murdered as part of a retaliation of a homeless man to Zvonimir Hodak.

In May 2010 Šimonović was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Ban Ki-moon

Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...

as the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights.