Northern Irish human rights activist Inez McCormack dies

Internationally renowned and praised by world leaders and fellow campaigners

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After portraying Inez McCormack in the Vital Voices play “SEVEN” in New York City, Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep is pictured with Hillary Clinton, and Inez

Photo by SEVEN

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Inez McCormack, the internationally renowned human rights activist, has died (Monday 21 January 2013) following a short illness.
 
Inez was the founder and adviser to the pioneering, highly commended Participation and the Practice of Rights organization (PPR). PPR provides support to local disadvantaged communities and groups in using a rights based approach to change the social and economic inequalities and deprivation they face.

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN Human Rights Commissioner, has described PPR’s work as “groundbreaking.”

Last year (2011), Inez, along with Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Meryl Streep and Mu Sochua (the Nobel Peace Prize nominee from Cambodia), was named by US publication Newsweek as one of ‘150 Women Who Shake the World.’ She was recognized for her work in enabling women to improve the quality of their lives through spreading the values of human rights.

Inez was the first female President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and an unrelenting activist for the equality provisions of the Good Friday Agreement. In the 1980s, she was a signatory to the historic MacBride Principles, a corporate code of conduct for US companies investing in Northern Ireland which demanded outcomes to address religious inequality in employment.

Nicola Browne, Director (Policy) of PPR said, "We are devastated by the death of Inez, our founder, adviser and dear friend. Inez believed in, and struggled for, the dignity of people at the hardest end of society, and this conviction fuelled her life’s work. In the trade union movement she supported the lowest paid women cleaners, and as a human rights campaigner, Inez used her formidable intelligence and warmth to bring about change on the ground for communities and groups that needed it most.

Read more: Newsweek name Inez McCormack as one of the women who shake the world

“During her time as Regional Secretary of UNISON, Inez spearheaded campaigns for equal pay for low paid women workers. Local or international, the focus was always on supporting those who were disadvantaged. From families in north Belfast who were experiencing housing inequality, to street traders in Durban, South Africa who had been forced out of work by the Olympic games, right through to undervalued domestic workers in New York and many, many more.”

Nicola Browne continued, “Inez was driven by her conviction that challenging the status quo and working for change was a vital part of a healthy democracy. Thanks to Inez’s visionary and tireless leadership, the Participation and the Practice of Rights organization is a thriving movement supporting a wide range of marginalized groups in order to create positive change and hold government to account.”

Award winning actress Meryl Streep chose to portray Inez's life in a reading of a documentary play “SEVEN” in New York in 2010. SEVEN tells the personal stories of Inez and six other women who triumphed over enormous obstacles to create major positive change in their home countries.

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