NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 11- Lobbying has intensified for the post of Director General at the International Labour Organization (ILO).
This follows the nomination of five candidates for the post in the election to be conducted next year in March.
Top candidates include Kang Kyung-wha (Republic of Korea), Gilbert F. Houngbo (Togo), Mthunzi Mdwaba (South Africa), Greg Vines (Australia) and Muriel Pénicaud (France).
Africa is fronting two candidates even after South Africa withdrew its endorsement on their candidate.
Medwaba is being fronted by individual ILO officials hence the two candidates form Africa. This has caused much confusion among African delegates who are supposed to vote for the candidates.
The law says in order to be considered these candidatures must be submitted by a member State of the Organization or by a member of the Governing Body.
In Kenya, Central Organisation of Trade Union boss Francis Atwoli and Jackline Mugo of the Federation of Kenya Employers would be the delegates to vote for the candidates.
To be elected, a candidate must receive the votes of more than one half of the members of the Governing Body entitled to vote.
According to the rules, the first week in January 2022 the Chairperson of the Governing Body will conduct interviews with candidates for the position of Director-General on the basis of the format and principles contained in ILO and the guidance provided by the Governing Body at its 342nd Session.
Between 14-15 March 2022 (344th Session of the Governing Body), the Governing Body will conduct candidate(s) hearings
On 25 March 2022 it will conduct the ballot for the election of the Director-General.
On October 1, 2022 the term of office of the Director-General commences.
So far, four former ILO secretaries have served in the UK, two in France, one in Belgium, two in the United States and one in Chile, and there is a lot of consensus within the ILO that women from non-Europe should now become the new head. South Korea’s candidate Kang aims to become the first Asian female ILO secretary-general.
Kang was born in 1955, graduated from Yonsei University’s Department of Political Science and Diplomacy in Korea and received a doctorate in communication from the Graduate School of Massachusetts in the United States.
She served as the South Korean Foreign Minister (2017.6-2021.2), the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Policy, the Deputy of OHCHR(Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights), and the Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator of OCHA(Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), and is currently an honorary chair professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University.
She has been active in a wide range of fields such as human rights, disaster recovery, woman and the disables at the UN, and believes that multilateral cooperation activities with the ILO are very important in that the protection of labor rights is also one of human rights.
She says she believes that more positive activities of ILO are needed in the global crisis caused by COVID-19, and she would like to contribute to this based on her extensive experience.
Kang is an expert in a variety of major issues covered by the UN system, which served in high-ranking UN positions, and is a diplomatic expert with numerous bilateral and multilateral diplomatic experiences while serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs for more than three years in the current Korean government.
She wants to among others to successfully cope with the global employment crisis caused by COVID-19 and restore the lives of companies and workers around the world.
She wants ILO wants to play an important role in leading collaboration and mutual coordination with various organizations and expanding development cooperation resources for quality jobs around the world, especially by reinforcing cooperation with international financial organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Vines says to deliver his vision for a world that ensures social justice and decent work for all, he endure ILO labor standards and the supervisory system are globally recognised and respected as the basis on which to advance the decent work agenda and a human-centered future of work
He will also reinvigorate social dialogue, shared ambition and trust, to respond to the changing realities of the world of work.
Houngbo says he cherishes the ambition of leading the ILO with a new impetus, to reposition it at the heart of the global social architecture and to mitigate the risk of its stature’s erosion.
His goal is based on a modernized normative system, decent work for social justice, a global social justice coalition, research and public policies and governance and management as his key pillars.
Mdwaba says he will reposition ILO to do its work of defending workers rights at large.
Penicaud says she will encourage high-level political discussions in the Governing Body, and will work for ambitious collective action.
She will ensure that the ILO’s governance and management are transparent and inclusive and that they reflect today’s realities and specific needs of constituents, both social partners and governments, regardless of their level of economic development.
With the assistance of regional and country offices, she will support a new wave of social dialogue in countries to help identify national priorities and tools to build.
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