MICHELLE BACHELET

 

MICHELLE BACHELET (b. 1951)

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria  is a Chilean politician who has served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights since 2018.

She has a long history of activism. In 1975, she was detained and tortured for weeks after speaking out against Chile’s military dictatorship. She went on to serve as Chile’s president from 2006-2010 and 2014-2018. for the Socialist Party of Chile. She is the first woman to hold the Chilean presidency.

After leaving the presidency in 2010 and while not immediately reelectable, 2011, Bachelet was appointed as the first Executive Director of UN Women - the newly created UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women - where she stayed until announcing her second presidential run in 2013. She focused, inter alia, on economic empowerment, tackling violence against women, and women's participation in security issues, including through Security Council Resolution 1325.

She has recently pledged to be a Gender Champion, committing to advance gender equality in OHCHR and in international fora.

In December 2013, Bachelet was reelected and she was the first President of Chile to be reelected since 1932.

During her presidential tenures, she promoted the rights of all but particularly those of the most vulnerable. Among her many achievements, education and tax reforms, as well as the creation of the National Institute for Human Rights and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights stand out, as do the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the adoption of quotas to increase women’s political participation, and the approval of Civil Union Act legislation, granting rights to same sex couples and thus, advancing LGBT rights.

Her appointment as the UN’s High Commissioner was well-received by the international community.