Geneva (AFP) – The UN labour agency chief will face two challengers for his job after a former Peruvian foreign minister entered the race at the last minute, the final candidate list showed Tuesday. Javier Gonzalez-Olaechea, 67, who was Peru’s foreign minister from November 2023 to September 2024, joined the contest to become director-general of the International Labour Organization before nominations closed at the end of Monday.
Current ILO chief Gilbert Houngbo, a former prime minister of Togo, is running for a second five-year term, starting in September 2027. Spain’s Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz Perez has also entered the race. Gonzalez-Olaechea is a former senior adviser and spokesman to former UN chief Javier Perez de Cuellar, his curriculum vitae says.
“My aim and proposal can be summarised as follows: a life of dignity in the Age of Disruption,” he said in his vision statement. He said he wanted to create an ILO “true to its mission: to promote social justice through rights, decent work, social protection, and tripartite dialogue.” Founded in 1919, the ILO has 187 member states which, uniquely in the UN system, are represented by governments, employers, and workers.
Headquartered in a vast, imposing 1960s-designed block in Geneva, the ILO aims to promote rights at work, encourage good employment opportunities, enhance social protection, and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues. The three candidates will face off in a public debate on September 23, allowing them to present their platforms and objectives for the ILO, which like many other UN agencies has been plunged into crisis by deep funding cuts.
On November 9, they will appear before the ILO’s governing body, which will then elect the new leader by secret ballot on November 16. The governing body serves as the ILO’s executive arm. It comprises government, employer, and employee representatives, in line with the agency’s tripartite structure. The ILO’s mission is to promote workers’ rights and improve working conditions. Last June, for instance, it adopted a landmark treaty aimed at protecting platform workers within the digital economy.
© 2024 AFP
