UN Approves Chilean Ex-President As New Human Rights Chief

In this file photo taken on September 20, 2017, Chile's then-president Michelle Bachelet addresses the 72nd UN General Assembly at the United Nations in New. Photo: AFP/Jewel Samad

The UN General Assembly in New York has appointed former President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, as High Commissioner for Human Rights, effective from Sept. 1, 2018.

The General Assembly officially appointed Bachelet after a vote on Friday following her nomination by the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to succeed outgoing Commissioner, Zeid Al Hussein, who assumed duty in September, 2014 and would bow out Aug. 31.

Minutes after she was voted in, Guterres told reporters that he was delighted by the news of her official appointment, saying “Bachelet has been as formidable a figure in her native Chile as she has at the United Nations”.

Highlighting her role as the first leader of UN Women, between 2010 and 2013, Guterres said she gave “that new entity a dynamic and inspiring start”.

He also pointed to her remarkable career as “the first woman to serve as the country’s President, and also as a survivor of brutality by the authorities targeting her and her family, many decades ago”.

Following the announcement, Bacheret, who would be the seventh High Commissioner since the office was created in 1993, said she was “deeply humbled and honoured to have been entrusted with this important task”.





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