In Memoriam Melanie Peters

Sadly, our former Board member Melanie Peters passed away on 11 August 2021. She was a passionate and active member of the Board of SOMO from 2009 to 2014, and stepped down from this role when she was elected as a member of the Dutch National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

Melanie was deeply committed to the issues that SOMO works on, and she made her mark, helping to bring about real progress on corporate accountability.

“Melanie inspired by the ability to combine her vision on science, interdisciplinary knowledge and leadership with great social and personal commitment. At SOMO, she has used this in a unique way over the years to promote compliance with human rights in international production chains”, according to Ronald Gijsbertsen, former director of SOMO. “We will very much miss her cheerful enthusiasm, broad knowledge and interest, flexible but tenacious idealism and her personal, stimulating and connecting way of working and being.”

“Melanie was committed, knowledgeable, critical and enterprising.”, says Dick de Graaf, then chairman of the executive board of SOMO. “I enjoyed working with her for five years on the board of SOMO. It was a terrible shame that she had to pass away at such a young age. We remember her with gratitude for her commitment to SOMO during those five years.”

Audrey Gaughran adds: “As an incoming Executive Director at SOMO, I deeply appreciate how Melanie’s time at SOMO helped build such a great organisation. We hope our ongoing work honours her commitment to securing justice for those whose lives are harmed by corporate activity.”

“Melanie’s untiring dedication to justice, knowledge, science and peace will be sorely missed by SOMO and indeed all those who knew her. She was an uplifting, upbeat force for good in the world, and we are lucky to have had her in our lives and work sphere.”, states Joseph Wilde-Ramsing, Senior Researcher at SOMO and closely involved with the OECD Watch Network.