The New York-based foundation said in a press release that "the Croatian president has shown a sincere dedication to promoting the ideals of the IRWF and in helping to solve the mystery of Wallenberg's fate."
The award will be presented to Mesic at Croatia's Permanent Mission to the United Nations during his visit to New York to attend the General Assembly this month. The Croatian president will be the first head of state to receive this award.
The IRWF recalled that Mesic had sent a letter to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin explaining his decision to become an honorary member of the IRWF and asking the Russian president for assistance in shedding light on Wallenberg's fate.
The Raoul Wallenberg Award has been established to recognise those who demonstrate rectitude in their conduct and for their outstanding performance in their respective occupations.
Among the recipients of the award are former Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, Allied troops who liberated Nazi concentration camps Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, and Japanese diplomat Senpo Sugihara who, in defiance of his government in Tokyo, saved more than 6,000 Jews while serving as a consul in Lithuania.
Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who saved nearly 100,000 Jews in Hungary during the Second World War. He was arrested by Soviet troops in 1945 never to be seen again.