PINOCHET SURVIVOR TO BECOME HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF AT UN
Michelle Bachelet, who twice led Chile, to be endorsed by General Assembly to succeed Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein
Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, who was tortured under dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime, is set to become the next United Nations human rights chief when Jordan’s Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein completes his four year-term this month.
Diplomats said UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed told a meeting of ambassadors this week that Ms Bachelet, 66, had agreed to take on the role, although her appointment must be endorsed by the General Assembly.
Twice president and one of the most powerful women in politics, Ms Bachelet also served in 2010 as the first director of UN Women, the agency promoting gender equality.
She will step into a position that has drawn much controversy under Mr Al Hussein – a sharp critic of US policy under President Donald Trump – who decided not to seek a second term after losing the support of powerful countries.
He told staff in a message that “in the current geopolitical context”, to stay “might involve bending a knee in supplication”.
During a farewell news conference last week, Mr Al Hussein defended his no-holdsbarred approach and said his advice to his successor would be to “be fair and don’t discriminate against any country” and “just come out swinging”.
Human rights groups had expressed concern that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres would seek to appoint someone less vocal.
“If selected, Bachelet will be taking on one of the world’s most difficult jobs at a moment when human rights are under widespread attack,” said Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth.
“As a victim herself, she brings a unique perspective to the role on the importance of a vigorous defence of human rights. People worldwide will depend on her to be a public and forceful champion, especially where offenders are powerful.”
The daughter of a general who opposed Pinochet’s western-backed overthrow of elected president Salvador Allende, Ms Bachelet was arrested in 1975 and held for several weeks at the Villa Grimaldi interrogation and torture centre in Santiago.
“I was mainly tortured psychologically, and some beating, but they didn’t ‘grill’ me,” she said in a 2014 interview, using prison slang for electric shocks.
“I was lucky compared to so many others. Many of them died,” she said in the interview, one of the few times she has discussed her ordeal.
The paediatrician and socialist became Chile’s first woman president in 2006. She served another four-year term from 2014.
Last year, Mr Guterres appointed her to a high-level UN panel on mediation that provides him with advice on UN peace efforts.
The UN chief described her as a “long-time champion of women’s rights” with a “history of dynamic global leadership, highly honed political skills and a recognised ability to create consensus”.
Born in Santiago, Ms Bachelet was studying medicine when she was detained for several weeks. After her release, she went into exile with her mother to Australia and then moved to East Germany.
She returned to Chile in 1979, but was prevented from working as a doctor for political reasons. She continued studying, specialising in paediatrics and public health.
After democracy was restored to Chile in 1990, she worked for the health ministry and in 2000 was appointed health minister. Four years later she was appointed defence minister.
As president, Ms Bachelet offered a dramatic break from Chile’s highly conservative political class. She reformed the pension system and improved health and social services, focusing on Chile’s working poor.