ILO Governing Body elects Ambassador Refiloe Litjobo as new Chairperson

GENEVA (ILO News) – The Governing Body of the International Labour Organization has elected Refiloe Litjobo as Chairperson for 2019–20.

He replaces Silvia Alfaro Espinosa, who served as Governing Body Chairperson from March to June 2019. Delegates thanked Espinosa for her work and congratulated the new Governing Body Chairperson on his appointment.

Litjobo has been Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Lesotho to the United Nations since April 2018. He served as a Member of Parliament in Lesotho from 2015 to 2017 and worked as a senior technical advisor at the Ministry of Health of Lesotho from 2010 to 2012. He previously worked with World Vision International and is currently chairperson of the World Trade Organization’s Working Group on Trade Debt and Finance.

Catelene Passchier, Vice-President of the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) and former Confederal Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation in Brussels, was re-elected Worker Vice-Chairperson. Mtunzi Mdwaba, Founder and CEO of TZoro IBC, and Chairperson of the University of the Western Cape and Productivity SA, was re-elected Employer Vice-Chairperson. They will serve as Officers of the Governing Body for 2019-20.

Governing Body members praised the adoption by the International Labour Conference on 21 June, 2019, of the Centenary Declaration for the Future of work, and the new Convention and Recommendation on Violence and Harassment.

During the session they discussed a range of other issues, including two reports of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association.

Members also paid tribute to former Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, who died in May 2019. Hawke was a former worker member of the ILO Governing Body.