Chile’s Michelle Bachelet to be new UN human rights chief

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 8 (APP):United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has picked Chile’s former President Michelle Bachelet to be the next U.N. High commissioner for Human Rights, according to diplomatic sources.
Ms. Bachelet’s appointment now has to be approved by the U.N. General Assembly. She would replace Jordan’s outspoken Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, who is stepping down at the end of the month after one four-year term in the job, which is based in Geneva.
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told a group of ambassadors of the decision on Tuesday, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said he could not confirm the report but said a name was being sent to the 193-member assembly.
Bachelet served as Chile’s president twice, from 2006-2010 and from 2014-2018. In between, she was the first head of UN Women, a new agency to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.
One of the last reports issued under the leadership of High Commissioner Zeid, who hails from Jordan, was about the serious abuses by Indian security forces in Kashmir and his call on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council for independent, international investigation of the situation. India angrily rejected the report, which was released in June, and its media unleashed personal attacks on him.
Responding to Indian criticism at a press conference in New York last week, High Commissioner Zeid said he stood by the report.