Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean

Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes, a Brazilian national, holds the position of International Labour Organization Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Lima, Peru since January 1, 2024.

In addition to her role at the ILO, she is a full professor at the University of Fortaleza (On leave), teaching in both the Postgraduate Program in Constitutional Law and the undergraduate Law Course. She has an extensive academic background, including a Law degree from the Federal University of Ceará (1994), an LL.M from the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto (2009), a PhD in Law from the University of São Paulo (2000), and a Post-Doctorate from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (2007). At the University of Fortaleza, she coordinated the Center for Studies in Labor Law and Social Security.

The focus of her research has been on some of themes that also form the ILO’s agenda: the guarantee of international labour standards, social protection, and social dialogue. She has presented her research in international conferences – such as ILO’s Regulating for Decent Work, the International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA) and the Labour Law Research Network (LLRN). Her research has been published in academic journals such as the Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, Revue de Droit Comparé du Travail et de la Sécurité Sociale, Revista do Tribunal Superior do Trabalho (Superior Labour Tribunal Journal) and the International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations. She co-edited three books related to key ILO norms: the 1998 Declaration, ILO Convention 151 and, in 2019, a book on the ILO Centenary that was based on a conference she hosted in Fortaleza.

In addition to her academic research, she has worked closely with some initiatives around public policy developments. She was part of the technical team of the Brazilian National Labor Forum in 2004 and has served on two councils: the State Council for the Rights of Homeless Population in Ceará, and the Scientific Council of the Judicial Research and Data Science Secretariat of the Superior Labor Court in Brazil. Besides teaching at the Universidade de Fortaleza, she has also taught by invitation at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto; the Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto); Universidade Católica de Santos, Brazil; and the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil.