H.E. Erol AVDOVIĆ

 

Ambassador Erol AVDOVIĆ is an award-winning journalist and publicist from Sarajevo. For more than 30 years he was a permanent correspondent at the United Nations and USA for the most prominent media in the Western Balkans including Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.

 

During his three decades of professional involvement in New York, Mr. Avdović was also president of the United Nations Correspondents' Association (UNCA) for two terms. He was the ex-officio president of the UNCA "Dag Hammarskjold Memorial Scholarship Fund", to award scholarships to journalists from developing countries with a scholarship to visit New York and follow the work of the United Nations and the UN General Assembly. In addition, Mr. Avdović was a long-time member of their Board of Directors.

 

He is the author of two books "Dnevnik imitacije" (Imitation Diary), published in 1988, "Grafos", Belgrade. And "Dejtonska podmornica" (Dayton Submarine) published by "KAJ", Zagreb, 1996 - an authentic chronicle of the peace negotiations at the Wright Patterson US Airbase in Dayton (OH) with the mediation of the USA, which brought peace to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995. He is also the author of the collection of essays "Last Address - New York" (Zadnja pošta New York). In addition, Mr. Avdović has written numerous expert analyses, including those for the "Atlantic Initiative" (associated with NATO in Bosnia and Herzegovina), including UN topics for the "Croatian Diplomatic Society" based in Zagreb.

 

He has been a guest lecturer and speaker at American universities, including Columbia University in New York and other world-wide international forums. He was also a regular panelist and moderator of diplomatic debates at the United Nations in New York, including the UN-based "Alliance of Civilizations" and "Igniting the Flame of Tolerance" (UNESCO forum dedicated to media freedom).

 

In 2013, he was recognized by the New York State Assembly for his twenty-year career in journalism, including human rights advocacy through his media work.

 

Ambassador Avdović is a member of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian-American Academy of Sciences and Arts (BHAAAS) based in the USA. He is the winner of several journalistic and other professional awards, and the "Golden Pen of the Diaspora".

 

In December 2022, in Sarajevo, he was awarded the jubilee (30 years) Plaque of the VKBI (Council of the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals) for lifetime professional achievements and thirty years of journalistic work in the United Nations and the USA.

 

He was born in 1958 in Skopje. He spent his early childhood in Sarajevo, where he received his earliest elementary education; He graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Cyril and Methodius University.