Speaker Details

Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah
General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) - Africa

Kwasi Adu-Amankwah is currently General Secretary of the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) - Africa, a position to which he was elected at the end of November, 2007. Before that, from September 2000,  he was Secretary General of Ghana Trades Union Congress and has been active in the trade union movement for the last 25 years. He served variously as education officer of Ghana TUC, Head of Political Department and then later as Deputy Secretary General in charge of operations of Ghana TUC.

Mr Adu-Amankwah began his working life as a teaching and research assistant at the University of Ghanas School of Performing Arts where he had graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Drama. Whilst working at Ghana TUC he undertook studies at the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, Netherlands, that led to the award of a Master of Arts Degree in Labour and Development in 1990.

Between 1994-2000 Mr Adu-Amankwah was Ghana TUC co-ordinator for the African Workers Participation Development Programme (APADEP)  a programme that combined education and research as well as trade union and university cooperation in that regard. He was also resource person at African regional level for the same programme.

Mr Adu-Amankwah is a strong advocate of human and trade union rights. He was detained without charge or trial by the Provisional National Defence Council Government of Ghana for 24 months and two weeks between mid May 1987 and the end of May 1989. He was adopted by Amnesty International then as a Prisoner of Conscience.

He has made numerous presentations on workers and trade union issues at national and international forums. He has also contributed to a number of publications on trade unions and democratic participation as well as to an ILO publication on trade unions and the informal sector.

 

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