Krešimir Zubak was born in Doboj. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo in 1970. For the next few years, he worked as a lawyer in a construction company, after which he began a judicial career. Zubak started his judicial career as Deputy Public Prosecutor in Doboj, after which he became President of the District Court in Doboj. From 1980 to 1984, he was Deputy Minister of Justice in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After that, Zubak was president of the High Court in Doboj until 1992.[3]
Before the start of the Bosnian War, Zubak was re-employed at the Ministry of Justice, but returned home after Serb forces attacked the village of Usora. He was severely wounded during an unsuccessful operation to liberate Doboj, that is, to occupy the strategically important Putnik Hill. The bullet went between his chest and armpits and erupted outside in the lower spine. Because of that wound, Zubak became 40% disabled, and underwent surgery at a local hospital in Tešanj. His family was soon expelled from Doboj, and he went into exile in Vodice near Šibenik. Zubak soon went to Herzegovina, while the rest of his family, his wife and two sons, went to Zagreb, where his sons finished law.[3]
Zubak participated in the negotiations on the conclusion of the Dayton Agreement. He finally signed the agreement on 14 December 1995.[4]
After the war
Zubak signed the Saint Petersburg Agreement with Ejup Ganić in Saint Petersburg, which he considered a continuation of the previously signed Dayton Agreement. In it, Zubak and Ganić agreed on the gradual exclusion of the institutions of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was supposed to guarantee the federal character of the Federation. The agreement was criticized by Haris Silajdžić and in the end, it failed.[5]
Zubak left the HDZ BiH in 1998 and founded the New Croatian Initiative (NHI).[3] He welcomed Barry's amendments to the Rules and Regulations of the Provisional Election Commission,[5] which allowed members of the Federal House of Peoples, regardless of their nationality, to be nominated and elected by all members of the Cantonal Assemblies. This made it possible for Croat envoys to be elected by Bosniaks.[7] With his new party, Zubak joined the ruling civic-unitary coalition of the Alliance for Change, led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP BiH), where he was appointed Minister of Human Rights and Refugees on 22 February 2001.[3] The coalition was ousted from power after the 2002 general election. Zubak's NHI did not achieve significant political success, and after a significant weakening, it merged with the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS BiH) to form the HSS-NHI in October 2007. Even the HSS-NHI, later renamed the Croatian National Alliance of Bosnia and Herzegovina, failed to make any significant political success.
After the general election held in October 2010, Zubak supported the creation of the so-called platform Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina without the presence of Croat legitimate representatives. When the Croatian Democratic Union 1990 (HDZ 1990) refused to join such a government, which included its coalition partner, the Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HSP BiH), Zubak claimed that HDZ 1990 "is commiting political suicide".[8] Later, his party, the Croatian National Alliance of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was merged in to HDZ 1990, and the party leadership was co-opted into the HDZ 1990 leadership, while Zubak himself withdrew from further political life.