High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay announced earlier today the appointment by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of Ivan Simonovic as Assistant Secretary-General to head the High Commissioner's New York office. He is the first person to hold the new post, which was approved by the UN General Assembly in December 2009.

Simonovic has extensive experience in the fields of international development, human rights, peace building and development of national institutions, which he has addressed at the political and academic levels, the UN press centre said..

He has been Croatia's justice minister since 2008, after previously serving as Assistant Minister and Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In addition he was Croatia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York for six years, and served as the Senior Vice-President and President of ECOSOC from 2001 to 2003.

Throughout his twenty-year career, he has actively engaged in various human-rights-related activities both as a legal expert as well as a diplomat.