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UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet says not seeking second term
"As my term as High Commissioner draws to a close, this Council's milestone fiftieth session will be the last which I brief," Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council as it opened a four-week sitting.
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New High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet speaks on the opening day of the 39th UN Council of Human Rights in Geneva on September 10, 2018. In her first speech as head of the UN rights called Bachelet for the creation of a new (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)
U
N rights chief Michelle Bachelet announced Monday that she will not seek a second term, ending months of speculation about her intentions amid growing criticism of her lax stance on rights abuses in China.
"As my term as High Commissioner draws to a close, this Council's milestone fiftieth session will be the last which I brief," Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council as it opened a four-week sitting.
The 70-year-old former Chilean president, who will wrap up her four-year mandate at the end of August, had until now remained mum about whether she would seek to stay on for a second term.
The post of High Commissioner for Human Rights typically faces heavy political pressure from countries around the world, and while it can be held for a maximum of two terms, nearly all of Bachelet's predecessors have avoided staying on for more than one term.
Last week, dozens of rights groups called for Bachelet's resignation, charging that she "whitewashed" Beijing's "atrocities" during her trip to China last month.
More than 230 groups, many advocating for the rights of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Hong Kongers, signed a joint statement calling for "the immediate resignation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights".
The signatories, which included a number of national and local chapters of the same groups, also urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to refrain from proposing a second term when her mandate expires at the end of August.
Bachelet has faced widespread criticism for not speaking out more forcefully against Chinese abuses during the long-planned trip, which took her to the far-western Xinjiang region, where China is alleged to have detained over a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, as well as carried out forced sterilisation of women and coerced labour.
The United States has labelled China's actions in Xinjiang a "genocide" and "crimes against humanity", allegations vehemently denied by Beijing which says its security crackdown in the region was a necessary response to extremism.
Wednesday's statement said Bachelet had "squandered a rare opportunity to promote accountability by failing to address the litany of systematic human rights violations committed by the Chinese authorities".
