Ms. Dubravka Šimonovic has been appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, on August 1st 2015 by the UN Human Rights Council for an initial three years' tenure (maximum tenure of six years). Ms. Dubravka Šimonović has been member of the CEDAW Committee (2002-2014), and served as its Chairperson (2007-2008), Follow-up Rapporteur (2009-2011) and Chairperson of the Optional protocol Working group (2011). For number of years she headed the Human Rights Department at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia and was posted as the Minister Plenipotentiary at the Permanent Mission of Croatia to the UN in New York and latter in her carrier as the Ambassador to the OSCE and UN in Vienna. She was Chairperson of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (2001-2002) and member of the UNIFEM Consultative Committee and of the UN Women Advisory panel for the report: Progress of the World’s Women: In pursuit of Justice. At the regional level she was member of the Council of Europe’s Task Force (its Chair and Vice Chair) to combat violence against women, including domestic violence (2006-2007) and Co-Chair of the Ad hoc Committee (CAHVIO) that elaborated the new Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (2008-2010). Ms. Šimonović holds a PhD in the field of Family law form Zagreb University, published books and articles and lectured on women’s rights and violence against women at Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, Harvard Law School, Nottingham University and at Women’s Human Rights Training Institute organized by the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation for lawyers form Eastern Europe, CIS and Caucuses.