The International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Network is composed of legal scholars and practitioners who represent the interests of workers and workers’ organizations. In particular, the group focuses on trade union powers, international labor organization, the informal economy, the “fissured employment relationship,” and forced labor and trafficking, among several other issues. ¹ More than 1,200 lawyers in 92 countries are part of the ILAW Network. ²

Background

The ILAW Network is a project of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, known as the Solidarity Center, which is affiliated with the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). ¹

Financials

ILAW Network is mentioned on a tax return as a project of the Education Fund for the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, which received a donation from the Ford Foundation in 2022 for $160,000 earmarked for the ILAW Network. ³

The ILAW Network also received “institutional support” from several organizations such as the Open Society Foundations, the Human Trafficking Legal Center, the AFL-CIO, and similar international organizations. ¹

Leadership

Jeffrey Vogt is the director of the ILAWN Network’s Rule of Law Department. ¹ Vogt was an adjunct professor at Penn State University from 2021 to 2022. ⁴ He previously worked as the AFL-CIO’s global economic policy specialist and deputy director of its international department. He has also represented trade unions in U.S. federal and state courts. ⁵

Campaign and media communications director Vanessa Parra worked for Amnesty International USA from October 2021 to September 2022, shortly before starting at the Solidarity Center. ^{6 7}

Jon Hiatt is a co-founder of the ILAW Network. ⁸ Hiatt previously worked as general counsel and chief of staff at the AFL-CIO. ⁹

Senior program officer Cassandra Waters worked at the AFL-CIO for nearly seven years, first as a global worker rights fellow and then a global worker rights specialist. She also clerked for an AFL-CIO chapter, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 21 in 2012, and was a communications assistant for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ. ¹⁰

Program officer Mariana Tejeida-Olvera has worked for the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, as well as the ideologically libertarian Cato Institute. ¹¹

Additionally, the ILAW Network has four regional coordinators: Mery Laura Perdomo is the regional coordinator and Paulo de Carvalho Yamamoto is the legal assessor for Latin America and the Caribbean; Jacquline Wamai is the regional coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa; Tamar Gabisonia is the regional coordinator for Europe and Central Asia; and Sabbir Hossain is the regional coordinator for South Asia. ¹

The ILAW Network is governed by an international advisory board of 20 workers’ advocacy lawyers, representing six continents. ¹

Initiatives

The ILAW Network runs a journal titled the Global Labour Rights Reporter. The journal put out a call for papers for “Forging a Feminist Labour Law” in August 2023 with a deadline for submissions of October 2023. ¹²

The ILAW Network has promoted the right to strike with a conference at the University of Bristol Law School and by promising a website dedicated to the cause in a February 2024 article that, as of early November 2024, was not publicly available. ¹³

The group’s Strategic Litigation Fund provides grants to members on several continents for “new impact litigation.” It has also written amicus briefs to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights and the high courts of Ecuador, Uganda, South Africa, and the Republic of Georgia. ¹⁴

The ILAW Network’s third global conference was held October 9-11, 2024, in Casablanca, Morocco. ¹⁵

1. “About.” ILAW Network, 2018, www.ilawnetwork.com/about/.
2. OnLabor. “The International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Network’s First Five Years ✦ OnLabor.” Onlabor.org, 20 Feb. 2024, http://www.onlabor.org/the-international-lawyers-assisting-workers-ilaw-networks-first-five-years/.
3. Ford Foundation Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990PF), 2022 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/131684331/202343199349104934/IRS990PF Part XIV, Section 3.
4. “LinkedIn.” Linkedin.com, 2024, www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-vogt-41153b31/.
5. Vogt, Jeffrey. “Jeffrey Vogt.” Jeffrey Vogt, 2024, http://www.iversity.org/en/profiles/jeffrey-vogt.
6. “Solidarity Center – Category: ILAW.” Solidarity Center, 2020, www.solidaritycenter.org/category/what-we-do/rule-of-law/international-lawyers-assisting-workers-network/.
7. “LinkedIn.” Linkedin.com, 2024, https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaparra/.
8. “LinkedIn.” Linkedin.com, 2024, https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-hiatt-316a64157/.
9. OnLabor. “Jon Hiatt ✦ OnLabor.” Onlabor.org, 20 Feb. 2024, http://www.onlabor.org/author/jonhiattonlabor/.
10. “LinkedIn.” Linkedin.com, 2024, https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassandra-waters-99ab4b12/
11. “LinkedIn.” Linkedin.com, 2024, https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariana-tejeida-5b874177/.
12. Business. “ILAW Journal Call for Papers: “Forging a Feminist Labour Law” (Deadline: 15 October 2023) – Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.” Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 2023, www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/ilaw-journal-call-for-papers-forging-a-feminist-labour-law-deadline-15-october-2023/.
13. “The International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Network’s First Five Years ✦ OnLabor.” Onlabor.org, 20 Feb. 2024, http://www.onlabor.org/the-international-lawyers-assisting-workers-ilaw-networks-first-five-years/.
14. “The International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Network’s First Five Years ✦ OnLabor.” Onlabor.org, 20 Feb. 2024, http://onlabor.org/the-international-lawyers-assisting-workers-ilaw-networks-first-five-years/.
15. “Solidarity Center – Labor Lawyers Strategize at ILAW’s Third Global Conference.” Solidarity Center, 28 Oct. 2024, Heath, Terrance. “Solidarity Center – Labor Lawyers Strategize at ILAW’s Third Global Conference.” Solidarity Center, 28 Oct. 2024, www.solidaritycenter.org/labor-lawyers-strategize-at-ilaws-third-global-conference/.