Welcome to the United Nations 
Biography
Ivan Simonovic became the president of ECOSOC on 14 January 2002, after serving as Senior Vice-President of the Council since January 2001.
Until the outbreak of hostilities in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he worked as the Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Zagreb Law School. He has authored and edited over fifty publications, including books, book chapters and articles in scholarly journals, in his native Croatian and English. He has lectured in Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Poland and the United States, where he was a Fulbright scholar at the Yale Law School. He holds a doctoral degree in law (LL.D.) from the University of Zagreb.
Ambassador Simonovic joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia in 1992. Since then, his duties included the posts of an Assistant Foreign Minister, in charge of Consular and International Legal Affairs (1992-1993) amd Multilateral Affairs (1994-1995), First Assistant Minister and Deputy Foreign Minister (1995-1996). He was a member of th Croatian Delegation at the 1995 Dayton Peace Talks.
Since February 1997, Ambassador Simonovic has been serving as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Croatia to the United Nations in New York. In May 2000 he was appointed as Agent of the Government of Croatia, in its case against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for alleged genocide, to the International Court of Justice. He is the Vice-President of the Bureau of the Preparatory Committee of the International Conference on Financing for Development to be held in March 2002. Ambassador Simonovic was born in Zagreb, capital of Croatia. He is married, with two children.
- Statements
- Statement to the 2003 organizational session of the Economic and Social Council (15 January 2003)
- Introduction of the report of the Economic and Social Council for 2002 (27 November 2002)
- Public Meeting of the Security Council on Women, Peace and Security (28 October 2002)
- Public Meeting of the Security Council on Cooperation between the UN System and the Central African Region in the Maintenance of Peace and Security (22 October 2002)
- World Food Day Ceremony (18 October 2002)
- Commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the signing of the General Peace Agreement in Mozambique (4 October 2002 )
- General Assembly Plenary Debate on NEPAD (16 September 2002 )
- Closing statement at the conclusion of the ECOSOC substantive session 2002 (26 July 2002)
- Remarks at the opening of ECOSOC humanitarian affairs segment (15 July 2002)
- Closing statement at the ECOSOC high-level segment (3 July 2002)
- Opening statement at the ECOSOC high-level segment (1 July 2002)
- Statement at the meeting of the General Assembly devoted to information and communication technologies for development (17 June 2002)
- Statement at the high-level segment of the fourth session of the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development(5 June 2002)
- Statement on the occasion of the Africa Day (24 May 2002)
- Statement at the public meeting of the Security Council on the Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa (22 May 2002)
- Statement at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (13 May 2002)
- Statement at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children (10 May 2002)
- Statement at the high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods Institutions (22 April 2002)
- Statement at the Second World Assembly on Ageing (9 April 2002)
- Statement at the International Conference on Financing for Development (18 March 2002)
- Talking Points for press conference (18 March 2002)
- Statement on e-commerce (26 February 2002)
- Statement at the public meeting of the Security Council on the Situation in Africa (29 January 2002)
- Opening statement at ECOSOC 2002 organizational session (14 January 2002)