Marit Maij new managing director CNV Internationaal

The board of the Dutch trade union confederation CNV has appointed Mrs Marit Maij, until recently Special Envoy for Migration for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as managing director for CNV’s international cooperation branch, CNV Internationaal. CNV President Arend van Wijngaarden: ‘I am particularly proud that CNV Internationaal is to have such a passionate and experienced managing director. I am fully confident that her knowledge, experience and expertise will in the coming years allow her to strengthen the work of CNV Internationaal in all areas of its activity: labour rights, social dialogue and youth employability.’

‘In international socially responsible business conduct, employees have an important role to play, both as beneficiaries and as actors,’ says Maij. ‘I would like to contribute to the strengthening of the position of employees in the CNV Internationaal partner countries. Social dialogue must be permanently strengthened in order to achieve decent work, living wages and good and safe working conditions for all.’

Marit Maij has been the Special Envoy for Migration for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs since May 2017. Before that, she was a member of the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament for the PvdA (Labour Party) from 2012 to 2017. She was also the parliamentary group secretary for that party for a year. Maij spoke in Parliament on European affairs, was a Brexit rapporteur and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where she was active in the field of women’s rights.

Maij can draw on 25 years of experience in the fields of international cooperation, European cooperation, human rights and migration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including at the Dutch embassies in Costa Rica and Beijing. For several years, she was seconded to the Ministry of Justice.

Maij studied political science at the University of Amsterdam (1994) and post-graduate studies (Master of Business Administration – MBA, 1996). From 1988 to 1990, she chaired the National Action Committee for Students in Secondary Education (LAKS).