Mariela Kohon

Mariela leads the TUC's work overseeing strategy for the TUC.

Mariela joined the TUC in 2019 as Senior International Officer, heading up the international team and work at the TUC. Mariela worked on the international trade union initiative to counter the rise of the far right as well as building solidarity with workers in Palestine, Türkiye, Brazil and other countries where workers have faced repression. She represented the TUC at the ETUC and ITUC, and built relationships with a number of sister trade unions around the world.

Previously she participated in the Colombian peace process negotiations, working as an adviser to the FARC peace negotiating team and participating in the negotiations which resulted in the 2016 peace agreement and subsequent negotiations to implement the agreement. In this role, she led engagement with members of the UN Security Council, the EU and wider diplomatic community. More recently, she worked as an adviser to the Colombian Government's Peace Commissioner, participating in negotiations and coordinating relations with the diplomatic community. She also worked as an adviser to the UN, the Norwegian Embassy, and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

She was previously Director of the British and Irish trade union campaign, Justice for Colombia, taking hundreds of trade unionists and politicians to witness the human rights situation, and leading advocacy initiatives on campaigns to expose human rights abuses, free political prisoners, and issues around trade agreements and military aid. In this role she led an initiative to engage key actors from the Good Friday Agreement negotiations and from the process in South Africa to share their experiences with the Colombian peace negotiators.