Members of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations

The members of the Committee of Experts are reputed legal experts of high national and international standing. They are appointed by the Governing Body on the recommendation of its Officers, upon the proposal of the Director-General. The members of the Committee of Experts are independent and of high moral character; they serve in their personal capacity and are recognized as impartial. The appointments are made for renewable periods of three years. In 2002, the Committee decided that there would be a limit of 15 years’ service for all members, representing a maximum of four renewals after the first three-year appointment.


Mr Shinichi AGO (Japan) [Appointed in 2015]
Professor Emeritus of Kyushu University (former Vice-Rector and Law Dean); Former Director, Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University; Former Judge of the Asian Development Bank Administrative Tribunal; Attorney at Law, TNY Law Office (admitted to the Tokyo Bar in September 2023); Member of the Asian Society of International Law, the Asian Society of Labour Law, the International Law Association and the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law.

Ms Lia ATHANASSIOU (Greece) [Appointed in 2015]
Full Professor of Maritime and Commercial Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Faculty of Law); Member and/or Chair of Legislative Committees on various commercial and maritime law issues; Director of the Postgraduate Programme on Maritime Law; President of the Legislative Committee having drafted the new Greek Code of Private Maritime Law (2023); President of the Organizing Committee of the International Conference on Maritime Law held in Piraeus (Greece) every three years; PhD from the University of Paris I-Sorbonne; authorization by the same university to supervise academic research; LL.M. Aix-Marseille III; LL.M. Paris II Assas; visiting scholar at Harvard Law School and Fulbright Scholar (2007–08). She has lectured and effectuated academic research in several foreign institutions in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Malta, the United States, and so on. She has published extensively on maritime, competition, industrial property, company, European and transport law (11 books and more than 60 papers and contributions in collective works in Greek, English and French); practising lawyer and arbitrator specializing in European, commercial and maritime law.

Ms Leila AZOURI (Lebanon) [Appointed in 2014]
Doctor of Law; Professor of Labour Law at the Faculty of Law at Sagesse University, Beirut until 2021; Director of Research at the Doctoral School of Law of the Lebanese University until 2017 and Professor and former Director of the Faculty of Law of the Lebanese University; member of the Executive Bureau of the National Commission for Lebanese Women; Chairperson of the national commission responsible for the preparation of the reports submitted by the Government of Lebanon to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) until 2017; legal expert for the Arab Women Organization until 2017; member of the “ILO Policy Advisory Committee on Fair Migration” in the Middle East.

Mr Kevin BANKS (Canada) [Appointed in 2025]
Associate Dean, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, where he teaches labour law, international and transnational labour law, and property law; member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and on rosters related to various trade agreements, including the United Kingdom–Singapore Free Trade Agreement and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA); former Chair of a Central America–Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA–DR) dispute settlement panel dealing with labour matters; former member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes; former Director-General of Labour Policy and Workplace Information and former Director of Research at the Federal Labour Standards Review Commission in the Public Service of Canada; author of numerous articles on, among other subjects, international and comparative labour law, state and private accountability through the Rapid Response Mechanism, disability rights at work, anti-discrimination law, labour law in the new economy, and globalization and labour standards.

Mr José Roberto HERRERA VERGARA (Colombia) [Appointed in 2022]
Doctor of Law; former magistrate and President of the Supreme Court of Justice; associate judge of the Constitutional Court; Vice-President of the Ibero-American Academy of Labour and Social Security Law; Emeritus and Honorary Professor at the University of Rosario; Professor of labour and social security law at the Javeriana University; Secretary-General of the Office of the Attorney-General; Class A arbitrator in administrative law, Chamber of Commerce of Colombia; head of the Labour Department of the Banco Cafetero; President of the Colombian Social Security Association; member of the Commission for Truth on the Palace of Justice Holocaust; member of the Governing Council of the University of Rosario.

Mr Benedict Bakwaph KANYIP (Nigeria) [Appointed in 2022]
President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria; fellow, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS); member of the Nigerian Bar Association, International Bar Association and Nigerian Society of International Law; fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria and the Nigerian Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; member of the National Judicial Council, the Federal Judicial Service Commission and the Body of Benchers of Nigeria; expert on consumer protection, labour law and tax law, with numerous publications on the subjects. Holder of the National Honour of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR). An awardee of the Bar Presidential Award (BPA) of the Nigerian Bar Association.

Ms Irene KASHINDI (Kenya) [Appointed in 2023]
Advocate Kashindi is a partner at Munyao Muthama and Kashindi Advocates with over 17 years as a practising advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She has been recognized and acclaimed locally in Kenya and internationally as a leading expert with significant experience in employment and labour relations matters. She practices in areas of commercial and civil litigation as well as alternative dispute resolution. She regularly appears before the High Court, the Employment and Labour Relations Court, the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Kenya. She is a co-author of Kashindis’ Digest of Employment Cases, a collection of key labour law judicial precedents. She previously represented the Law Society of Kenya in the Employment and Labour Relations Court Rules Committee, which has the mandate to review and make rules of procedure for the labour court under the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2011. In the area of alternative dispute resolution, Ms Kashindi is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (United Kingdom) and has been involved in a mediation, conciliation and arbitration in employment disputes. She was a Board Member of the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board from 2020 to November 2023. She received her Bachelor’s and Master of Law degree (Financial Services Law) from the University of Nairobi. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Law in Strathmore University, and her research interests are on the intersection between Labour Law and technology including AI.

Mr Mohamed KORRI YOUSSOUFI (Maroc) [Appointed in 2024]
Doctor of Law, former Professor of labour law and civil procedure at the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences of Moulay Ismail University, Meknes; member of the tripartite committee responsible for drafting regulatory texts implementing the provisions of the Labour Code; registered on several occasions on the official list of arbitrators, drawn up by the Ministry of Labour, for the resolution of collective disputes and the settlement of labour disputes; founding member of the “Labour law and society” research group, having published eight works on labour law; consultant and legal adviser to several national and multinational companies, particularly on labour law and industrial relations management; author of several books and academic articles on labour law, civil procedure and international labour law; contributor to renowned collective works in his field.

Mr Attila KUN (Hungary) [Appointed in 2025]
Professor and Head of the Department of Labour Law and Social Security, Faculty of Law, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary; Professor, Ludovika University of Public Service, Department of Human Resources. He is member of the Budapest Bar Association and was an active practitioner (attorney, consultant in labour law) for a long time as well as member and chief coordinator (2016–22) of the labour advisory and dispute settlement service of Hungary (dealing with amicable settlement of collective labour disputes). Professor Kun is regular guest-lecturer at several foreign universities; member of several editorial boards and professional associations, including the advisory board of the OECD Hungarian National Contact Point (HNCP); the Advisory Committee of the Labour Law Research Network (LLRN), the European Commission’s MoveS Network of independent experts in the field of intra-EU mobility; the Organizing Committee of the Hugo Sinzheimer Moot Court Competition in European labour law (HSMCC). He is author of numerous articles and books on labour law and corporate social responsibility. Professor Kun holds Doctor of Laws and PhD from the University of Szeged and advanced MA from KU Leuven (Belgium). He is a recipient of several awards, including the Marco Biagi award (International Association of Labour Law Journals).

Mr Alain LACABARATS (France) [Appointed in 2017]
Judge at the Court of Cassation; former President of the Third Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation; former President of the Social Chamber of the Court of Cassation; former member of the Judicial Service Commission; former member of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary; former member of the Consultative Council of European Judges (Council of Europe); former Vice-President of the Paris Regional Court; former President of the Paris Court of Appeal Chamber; former lecturer at several French universities and author of many publications. Member of the ethics assistance and monitoring service of the Judicial Service Commission. Board member of the Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spoliations (CIVS).

Ms Athalia MOLOKOMME (Botswana) [Appointed in 2025]
Dr Athalia Lesiba Molokomme is a lawyer by training whose 40-year career has spanned the academic, governmental, judicial, civil society and diplomatic spheres at senior leadership level. In Botswana, she served as a university lecturer in family, employment and customary law, (1983–96); Regional Gender Program Officer (1998–2003); High Court Judge (2003–05); and Attorney-General (2005–16). From 2017–24, she was Botswana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva and Ambassador to Switzerland, during which she served on a number of high-level committees including as Chairperson of the General Council of the WTO. She is currently operating as an independent consultant based in Gaborone, Botswana, and serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Botswana Insurance Holdings Ltd, as well as regional and global boards, committees and councils.

Ms Mónica PINTO (Argentina) [Appointed in 2017]
Professor Emerita, University of Buenos Aires. Member of the Institute of International Law. Lawyer and legal counsel in public international law cases, and arbitrator and member of ad hoc committees in foreign investment cases. She has appeared as a counsel and as an expert before universal and regional human rights bodies and tribunals, arbitral tribunals and the International Court of Justice, where she was Judge ad hoc. Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (since 2022) and of the Permanent Review Tribunal for MERCOSUR (2021–25). Former Dean of the School of Law at the University of Buenos Aires (2010–18). Visiting Professor at the University of Columbia, Paris I & II, and the University of Rouen. She taught at the Hague Academy of International Law, and at the InterAmerican and European Institutes of Human Rights. She held several mandates for the United Nations in the area of human rights. Judge and President of the Administrative Tribunals of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Vice-President of the Advisory Committee on nominations of judges of the International Criminal Court (2013–18) and member of the Independent Expert Review of the International Criminal Court (2020). She has published five books and several articles in periodical publications in the United States of America and Europe.

Ms Mia RÖNNMAR (Sweden) [Appointed in 2023]
Professor Rönnmar is Vice-Chancellor/President of Malmö University in Sweden. She is on leave from her position as a Full Professor of Private Law specializing in labour law and industrial relations at Lund University, where she also served as Dean for six years from 2015 to 2020. She has been a visiting researcher at, for example, the LSE, the EUI and Sydney Law School. Professor Rönnmar has extensive experience of international, comparative, and interdisciplinary research in labour law and industrial relations. Formerly President of the International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA) from 2018 to 2021, Professor Rönnmar organized the 19th ILERA World Congress in Lund. She has published widely on labour law, equality and human rights. Professor Rönnmar holds a Doctor of Laws in Private Law (LLD) from the Faculty of Law, Lund University.

Mr Iain ROSS (Australia) [Appointed in 2023]
Judge Ross was appointed Judge of the Federal Court and President of Fair Work Australia until his retirement in 2022. In April 2023 he was appointed as a member of the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia. In December 2024 he was appointed Chair of the Net Zero Economy Authority of Australia. His previous positions include serving as Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria, President of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, and Vice-President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Since 1997, Judge Ross has lectured at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney and was appointed Adjunct Associate Professor of Law in 2004. He has also been an Adjunct Professor in the University of Sydney’s Business School since March 2014. He has been a member of various legislative reform committees, among them as Commissioner of the New South Wales Reform Commission, member of the Tribunal’s Working Group to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) Review of the Federal Civil Justice System and part-time Commissioner of the Victorian Law Reform Commission. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia. Judge Ross holds a Master of Law and a PhD in Law from the University of Sydney and a Master of Business Administration from Monash University. He has also studied at the London Business School.

Ms Kamala SANKARAN (India) [Appointed in 2018]
Professor, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. Previously served as Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi; Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu National Law University, Tiruchirappalli; Dean, Legal Affairs, University of Delhi, Member, Task Force to Review Labour Laws; National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised and Informal Sector, Government of India; Fellow, Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study, South Africa; Visiting South Asian Research Fellow, School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, Oxford University; Fulbright Post-Doctoral Research Scholar, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC.

Ms Ambiga SREENEVASAN (Malaysia) [Appointed in 2022]
Well-known human rights advocate and recipient of several international awards; Member of the Institutional Reforms Committee of Malaysia in 2018; legal assistant and then partner, Skrine (1982–2001), one of the largest law firms in Malaysia; partner, Tommy Thomas (2001–02); former President of the Malaysian Bar (2007–09); former Chairperson and then Co-Chairperson of Bersih 2.0 (Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections) (2010–13); former President of the National Human Rights Society (Hakam) (2014–18); founded her own law firm in 2002 specializing in dispute resolution in commercial, civil, labour disputes and intellectual property; commissioner and alternate member of the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists. She was awarded the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Medal of Honour 2023 by the World Jurist Association in May 2023.

Mr Jean-Marie TCHAKOUA (Cameroon) [Appointed in 2024]
Associate Professor of law; Professor of private law, notably labour law and social security law, at the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences of the University of Yaoundé since 1992; President and founding member of the Cameroon Association for the Promotion of Labour Law and Social Security; founding member of the Association for the Promotion of Law in Africa (APRODA); member of the Association for the Promotion of Human Rights in Central Africa (APDHAC); author of specialized publications and numerous articles and studies in legal journals.

Ms Deborah THOMAS-FELIX (Trinidad and Tobago) [Appointed in 2015]
High Commissioner for The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to Jamaica and Non-Resident Ambassador to Haiti and the Dominican Republic and Permanent Representative to International Seabed Authority; Judge of the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal; former President of the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago; former President of the United Nations Appeals Tribunal; former Second Vice-President of the United Nations Appeals Tribunal; former Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission; former Chair of the Caribbean Group of Securities Regulators; former Deputy Chief Magistrate of the Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago; former President of the Family Court of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Hubert Humphrey/Fulbright Scholar; Georgetown University Leadership Seminar Fellow and Commonwealth Institute of Judicial Education Fellow. The author of three textbooks on Labour Law, Employment Law and Industrial Relations.

Ms Rosalinda VÉLEZ JUÁREZ (Mexico) [Appointed in 2025]
She was the first woman in Mexico to serve as President of the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal, the body responsible for resolving individual and collective conflicts in the public sector. She was in charge of the Federal Bureau for the Defence of Labour, which provides guidance, advice and information to workers on their labour rights and represents them in labour courts, where she was responsible for more than 80,000 labour cases. She served as Director-General of Legal Affairs at the Secretariat of Labour and Social Welfare, where she participated in the development of various draft laws relating to labour matters and was responsible for handling administrative proceedings to impose penalties for labour standards violations found by labour inspectors. She was also the first woman to serve as Secretary of Labour and Social Welfare, where she promoted a reform of the Federal Labour Act of Mexico, aligning it more closely with international labour standards. In this position, she chaired the work and meetings of the G20 ministers of labour in 2012. She participated as a member of various tripartite bodies and councils, such as the National Workers’ Housing Fund Institute (INFONAVIT); the General Assembly of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS); the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (COCONASHT); and in the Council of Representatives of the National Minimum Wage Board (CONASAMI). She served as an adviser at the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit and at the Secretariat of Social Development on labour and inclusion. Furthermore, she headed the Public Contracts Unit of the National Bank of Public Works and Services, SNC. She has been a trial lawyer in civil, labour and administrative matters. A graduate of the Escuela Libre de Derecho, she holds a Master’s degree in human rights from the Complutense University of Madrid and a postgraduate diploma in financial law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She is currently an independent consultant on labour and human rights.

Mr Bernd WAAS (Germany) [Appointed in 2015]
Professor of Labour Law and Civil Law at the University of Frankfurt; Coordinator and member of the European Labour Law Network; Coordinator of this network’s study group on a Restatement of Labour Law in Europe; Coordinator of labour law advisory network of the European Commission; President of the German Society for Labour and Social Security Law and member of the Executive Committee of the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law (ISLSSL); member of the Advisory Committee of the Labour Law Research Network (LLRN).