The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Michelle Bachelet, announced on Monday that she will not run for a second term after August 31.
“As my term comes to an end, this 50th session of the Council will be the last in which I will speak,” the 70-year-old former Chilean president said at the opening session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which begins Monday. in Geneva, Switzerland.
The OHCHR spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, quoted by the Associated Press news agency, confirmed that Bachelet will not seek a second four-year term when the current one ends on August 31.
Bachelet’s current term has recently been overshadowed by criticism of her response to China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. In early June, more than 230 human rights organizations, including Portuguese, demanded Bachelet’s resignation, accusing her of “whitening atrocity” during his recent visit to China.
For the activists, during the trip Michelle Bachelet legitimized “Beijing’s attempt to cover up its crimes by using the Chinese government’s false framework of ‘counterterrorism’ and repeatedly referring to the internment camps under the designation of the Chinese government: ‘Centers for Education and Vocational Training’ (CETP)”. .
Western governments and human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) accuse China of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities in re-education camps. The activists also asked the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, not to propose the renewal of Bachelet’s mandate.
The executive director of HRW said that part of the blame for Bachelet’s failed visit to China rests with the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, for having previously accepted the terms imposed by Beijing for the High Commissioner’s visit, when was in the Chinese capital on the occasion of the opening of the Winter Olympics.
Kenneth Roth said at a press conference that Bachelet’s trip to China from May 23 to 28 “could not have been better for the Chinese government, which is trying hard to hide the mass arrests and abuses in Xinjiang”, an autonomous region of the territory. inhabited by various ethnic minorities, namely the Uyghurs.
The executive director of HRW said that part of the blame for Bachelet’s failed visit to China rests with the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, for having previously accepted the terms imposed by Beijing for the High Commissioner’s visit, when was in the Chinese capital for the opening of the Winter Olympics.
Guterres, according to Roth, is “weaker” when it comes to criticizing influential states in relation to his predecessors in office, such as the Ghanaian Kofi Annan (who died in 2018) and the South Korean Ban Ki-moon. Antonio Guterres recently affirmed his support for Bachelet.
Source: Observadora
