Board Members

TIMOTHY RYAN

Chairperson

TIMOTHY RYAN

Chairperson

Timothy (Tim) Ryan (b. United Kingdom, February 5, 1956) was the Asia Regional Program Director for Solidarity Center, based in Washington between 2001 and his retirement in 2021. In this position, he oversaw all Solidarity Center programmes for Asia, including offices in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, with regional programmes in India, Nepal, Philippines, and the Maldives. He spent eight years in Asia as the Solidarity Center’s Country Program Director for Sri Lanka (1993-97) and Indonesia (1997-2001), working on organising export processing zones, migrant worker issues, and in India and Pakistan his work was focused on developing programmes to combat child labour. His writing on labour and political issues has appeared in Harper’s, Foreign Policy, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Thomson-Reuters, Foreign Policy in Focus, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Christian Science Monitor, and in national newspapers in South Asia and Latin America. He is the Executive Producer of “Knots: A Forced Marriage Story,” an international award-winning feature-length documentary on forced marriage in the US). His fiction has appeared in national publications and literary journals in the US and UK.

HALDIS HOLST

Secretary & Representative from Education International

HALDIS HOLST

Secretary & Representative from Education International

Haldis Holst is Deputy General Secretary of Education International (EI), a Global Union Federation that represents organisations of teachers and other education employees. Ms Holst graduated as a teacher in 1983 and has worked as a teacher in primary and secondary schools in Norway. She has also been a union representative at the local, regional, and national levels. She has served as Norway’s representative on the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) and has been a member of the Executive Board of EI. She was Chair of the Governing Board of The European Wergeland Centre (EWC) from 2013 to 2020 and has served on the Education 2030 Steering Committee. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE)

FRANS RÖSELAERS

Treasurer

FRANS RÖSELAERS

Treasurer

Frans Röselaers (1946, Netherlands) has served with the International Labour Organization (1975 to 2006) in field positions in Africa and at the ILO Headquarters. Over the last decade, he was closely involved in addressing the grave problem of child labour worldwide and headed the ILO’s flagship International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour from 1999 to 2005. He served on the Editorial Board of the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children (published in 2006). Frans is a Member of several boards of child rights NGOs and institutes; and of industry partnerships to combat child labour. He is also the Trustee and Board Member of the Global March Against Child Labour.

ANDREWS ADDOQUAYE TAGOE

Regional Representative from Anglophone Africa

ANDREWS ADDOQUAYE TAGOE

Regional Representative from Anglophone Africa

Mr Andrews Addoquaye Tagoe (b. Ghana, April 19, 1965) affectionately called ‘Andy’ is an Agricultural Engineer by training and a Trade Unionist by profession. Andy is the Deputy General Secretary for the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress Ghana and has served the Union movement for over 26 years. He has professional competencies in Labour issues, decent work, child labour, workplace occupational safety and health, rural livelihoods and poverty reduction strategies for rural people. Since the early 2000s, he has withdrawn over 4500 children from child labour in rural agricultural communities in Ghana some of whom are currently youth advocates in communities, assemblymen, teachers and community workers. In June 2024, Andy received the prestigious Iqbal Masih Award for the elimination of child labour by the U.S Department of Labour (USDOL).

CLÉOPHAS MALLY

Regional Representative from Francophone Africa

CLÉOPHAS MALLY

Regional Representative from Francophone Africa

Cléophas Mally (b. Hiheatro, Togo, 1954) is currently the director of WAO-Afrique, an NGO based in Lomé that fights against child trafficking and child labour. He received a Diploma in Human Rights Education from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and a Master's Degree in Social Development Studies and Public Management. Mr. Mally has served on various Boards during the last 15 years such as – End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), Global Campaign for Education (GCE), and the Voluntary Fund of the United Nations. Along with being a Board member of the Global March Against Child Labour, he is currently the co-president of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), a Swiss Foundation and a member of the NGO Advisory Council in charge of follow-up to the United Nations Study on Violence against Children.

VIRGINIA MURILLO HERRERA

Regional Representative from Central America

VIRGINIA MURILLO HERRERA

Regional Representative from Central America

Virginia Murillo Herrera (b. San José, Costa Rica, October 2, 1964) is the Executive President of Defensa de Niñas y Niños Internacional-Costa Rica (Defence for Children International-Costa Rica). Along with being a Board Member of the Global March Against Child Labour, Virginia is currently the Chair of the UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, an Expert of the OHCHR and Member of the UN Trust Fund on Trafficking. A researcher and coordinator of different regional networks, she has also been a former Executive Board Member of Defence for Children International. Virginia has over 20 years of experience in the field of Human Rights. She has a wide range of expertise in areas covering Human Rights, Child Rights, Local Development, Violence Against Children, Child Labour, Juvenile Justice, Migration, Monitoring and Evaluation, Building Capacities, Networking, Advocacy, Public Policies and National Protection Systems. A sociologist by training, Virginia holds a Master's in Public Management of Local Development.

ANA VÁSQUEZ GARDINI

Regional Representative from South America

ANA VÁSQUEZ GARDINI

Regional Representative from South America

Ana Vásquez Gardini es una economista peruana comprometida con la promoción y defensa del ejercicio pleno de derechos de niñas, niños, adolescentes y mujeres adultas. Actualmente es Directora del Centro de Estudios Sociales y Publicaciones CESIP y Representante de la Marcha Global contra el Trabajo Infantil para América del Sur e integrante del Comité de Políticas de la Red Internacional de Grupos Pro Alimentación Infantil (IBFAN) en América Latina. Ha sido Presidenta de la Red de Educación Commented [AJ20]: check with deepika if officially resigned Popular entre Mujeres de América Latina y El Caribe –REPEM. Participa en espacios, nacionales e internacionales vinculados a los derechos de las mujeres y la educación.

NORMA FLORES LÓPEZ

Regional Representative from North America

NORMA FLORES LÓPEZ

Regional Representative from North America

Norma Flores López is the Governance and Development/Collaboration Manager at East Coast Migrant Head Start Project and serves as the chair of the Child Labor Coalition’s Domestic Issues Committee. She has long been an active advocate for migrant farmworker children’s rights and continues to raise awareness on issues affecting farmworkers and creating meaningful engagement with the farmworker community in her current role. In addition to her years of experience as an advocate, Norma has invaluable firsthand experience with farmworker issues. Growing up as a child of a migrant farmworker family from South Texas, she began working in the fields at the age of 12, where she continued working until she graduated from high school. Norma has had the opportunity to testify before Congress and has appeared on national news outlets including, 60 Minutes, on issues related to child labour in agriculture. She has also been invited by international governments to consult on strategies to reduce child labour abroad.

YUKA IWATSUKI

Regional Representative from South East Asia

YUKA IWATSUKI

Regional Representative from South East Asia

She founded ACE (Action against Child Exploitation) in 1997 while she was earning a master’s degree from the Osaka School of International Public Policy in response to Mr Kailash Satyarthi’s call to join the Global March Movement. She served as a fellow at Winrock International, working on the Best Practices Report of the CIRCLE project (2006). Currently, she is acting as secretariat of STOP! Child Labour Network Japan, the board of Global March Against Child Labour and Japan Ethical Initiative. Her work at ACE includes addressing child labour in cocoa industry in Ghana and cotton industry in India; advocacy; partnership with corporate sectors; and leading the organization to grow and build its reputation as a child labour specialist. ACE was nominated for The U.S. Department of Labor Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor (2012). ACE won the Nikkei Social Initiative Award in the International category (2015) for its solution model involving corporate partners and consumers to end child labour in cocoa in Ghana.

MILAN RAJ DHAREL

Regional Representative from South Asia

MILAN RAJ DHAREL

Regional Representative from South Asia

Milan brings over 23 years of dedicated experience in child rights with a strong background in activism and human rights advocacy. He has worked with civil society organisations in Nepal as an activist and a human rights campaigner and has led several national studies on issues like child labour, slavery, trafficking, and forced labour. He also founded Swatantrata Abhiyan Nepal (SAN), a Nepalese non-profit organisation focused on combatting human trafficking, and the eradication of child labour. Milan served as the Executive Director of the National Child Rights Council in Nepal which is the apex government agency on child rights, further solidifying his expertise and leadership in this field.

PAAPA DANQUAH

Represents ITUC

PAAPA DANQUAH

Represents ITUC

Paapa is a lawyer by profession and serves as the Legal Director of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The ITUC advances and defends workers’ rights in international labour governance institutions and organisations whose activities impact the realisation of workers’ rights and interests. He is a passionate advocate for human rights.

TIMOTHY RYAN

Chairperson

Timothy (Tim) Ryan was the Asia Regional Program Director for Solidarity Center overseeing all Solidarity Center programmes for Asia...

TIMOTHY RYAN

Chairperson

Timothy (Tim) Ryan was the Asia Regional Program Director for Solidarity Center overseeing all Solidarity Center programmes for Asia (Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam) with regional programmes in India, Nepal, Philippines, and the Maldives. He spent eight years in Asia working on organising export processing zones, migrant worker issues, and in India and Pakistan his work was focused on developing programmes to combat child labour. His writing on labour and political issues has appeared in Harper’s, Foreign Policy, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Thomson-Reuters, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Christian Science Monitor, and in national newspapers in South Asia and Latin America. He is the Executive Producer of “Knots: A Forced Marriage Story,” an international award-winning feature-length documentary on forced marriage in the US.

HALDIS HOLST

Secretary & Representative from Education International

Haldis Holst is Deputy General Secretary of Education International (EI), a Global Union Federation that represents organisations of teachers and other education employees.

HALDIS HOLST

Secretary & Representative from Education International

FRANS RÖSELAERS

Treasurer

Frans Röselaers (1946, Netherlands) has served with the International Labour Organization (1975 to 2006) in field positions in Africa and at the ILO Headquarters.

FRANS RÖSELAERS

Treasurer

ANDREWS ADDOQUAYE TAGOE

Regional Representative from Anglophone Africa

Mr Andrews Addoquaye Tagoe (b. Ghana, April 19, 1965) affectionately called ‘Andy’ is an Agricultural Engineer by training and a Trade Unionist by profession.

ANDREWS ADDOQUAYE TAGOE

Regional Representative from Anglophone Africa

Mr Andrews Addoquaye Tagoe (b. Ghana, April 19, 1965) affectionately called ‘Andy’ is an Agricultural Engineer by training and a Trade Unionist by profession. Andy is the Deputy General Secretary for the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress Ghana and has served the Union movement for over 26 years. He has professional competencies in Labour issues, decent work, child labour, workplace occupational safety and health, rural livelihoods and poverty reduction strategies for rural people. Since the early 2000s, he has withdrawn over 4500 children from child labour in rural agricultural communities in Ghana some of whom are currently youth advocates in communities, assemblymen, teachers and community workers. In 2024, Andy received the prestigious Iqbal Masih Award for the elimination of child labour by the U.S Department of Labour (USDOL).

CLÉOPHAS MALLY

Regional Representative from Francophone Africa

Cléophas Mally (b. Hiheatro, Togo, 1954) is currently the director of WAO-Afrique, an NGO based in Lomé that fights against child trafficking and child labour.

CLÉOPHAS MALLY

Regional Representative from Francophone Africa

CLÉOPHAS MALLY (Regional Representative from Francophone Africa) Cléophas Mally (b. Hiheatro, Togo, 1954) is currently the director of WAO-Afrique, an NGO based in Lomé that fights against child trafficking and child labour. He received a Diploma in Human Rights Education from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and a Master's Degree in Social Development Studies and Public Management. Mr. Mally has served on various Boards during the last 15 years such as – End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), Global Campaign for Education (GCE), and the Voluntary Fund of the United Nations. Along with being a Board member of the Global March, he is currently the co-president of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI).

VIRGINIA MURILLO HERRERA

Regional Representative from Central America

Virginia Murillo Herrera (b. San José, Costa Rica, October 2, 1964) is the Executive President of Defensa de Niñas y Niños Internacional-Costa Rica (Defence for Children International-Costa Rica).

VIRGINIA MURILLO HERRERA

Regional Representative from Central America

ANA VÁSQUEZ GARDINI

Regional Representative from South America

Ana Vásquez Gardini es una economista peruana comprometida con la promoción y defensa del ejercicio pleno de derechos de niñas, niños, adolescentes y mujeres adultas.

ANA VÁSQUEZ GARDINI

Regional Representative from South America

Ana Vásquez Gardini es una economista peruana comprometida con la promoción y defensa del ejercicio pleno de derechos de niñas, niños, adolescentes y mujeres adultas. Actualmente es Directora del Centro de Estudios Sociales y Publicaciones CESIP y Representante de la Marcha Global contra el Trabajo Infantil para América del Sur e integrante del Comité de Políticas de la Red Internacional de Grupos Pro Alimentación Infantil (IBFAN) en América Latina. Ha sido Presidenta de la Red de Educación.Popular entre Mujeres de América Latina y El Caribe –REPEM.

NORMA FLORES LÓPEZ

Regional Representative from North America

Norma Flores López is the Governance and Development/Collaboration Manager at East Coast Migrant Head Start Project and serves as the chair of the Child Labor Coalition’s Domestic Issues Committee

NORMA FLORES LÓPEZ

Regional Representative from North America

Norma Flores López is the Governance and Development/Collaboration Manager at East Coast Migrant Head Start Project and serves as the chair of the Child Labor Coalition’s Domestic Issues Committee. In addition to her years of experience as an advocate, Norma has invaluable firsthand experience with farmworker issues. Growing up as a child of a migrant farmworker family from South Texas, she began working in the fields at the age of 12, where she continued working until she graduated from high school. Norma has had the opportunity to testify before Congress and has appeared on national news outlets, on issues related to child labour in agriculture. She has also been invited by international governments to consult on strategies to reduce child labour abroad.

YUKA IWATSUKI

Regional Representative from South East Asia

YUKA IWATSUKI

Regional Representative from South East Asia

She founded ACE (Action against Child Exploitation) in 1997 while she was earning a master’s degree from the Osaka School of International Public Policy in response to Mr Kailash Satyarthi’s call to join the Global March Movement. She served as a fellow at Winrock International, working on the Best Practices Report of the CIRCLE project (2006). Currently, she is acting as the Secretariat of STOP! Child Labour Network Japan, the board of Global March Against Child Labour and Japan Ethical Initiative. Her work at ACE includes addressing child labour in cocoa industry in Ghana and cotton industry in India; advocacy; partnership with corporate sectors; and leading the organization to grow and build its reputation as a child labour specialist.

MILAN RAJ DHAREL

Regional Representative from South Asia

MILAN RAJ DHAREL

Regional Representative from South Asia

PAAPA DANQUAH

Represents ITUC

PAAPA DANQUAH (Represents ITUC) Paapa is a lawyer by profession and serves as the Legal Director of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

PAAPA DANQUAH

Represents ITUC