Dr. Dubravka Šimonovic was appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences in June 2015 by the UN Human Rights Council for an initial three years' tenure (maximum tenure of six years). She started her tenure on 1 August 2015 and had her mandate renewed in 2018 for three additional years.

Dr. Šimonović was a member of the CEDAW Committee between 2002 and 2014, and served as its Chairperson in 2007 and 2008, its follow-up Rapporteur from 2009 to 2011 and as the Chairperson of the Optional Protocol Working Group in 2011.

At the regional level, in 2006 and 2007, she was the Chair and Vice Chair of the Council of Europe’s Task Force to combat violence against women, including domestic violence, that proposed the adoption of the new Council of Europe Convention on violence against women. Between 2008 and 2010, she co-chaired the Ad hoc Committee (CAHVIO) that elaborated the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention).