UN RIGHTS CHIEF DECLINES SECOND TERM AFTER CRITICISM OVER CHINA

Mon 13 June 2022:

Michelle Bachelet, the UN’s human rights commissioner, said on Monday that she would not seek a second term in a wide-ranging speech to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.

Bachelet’s journey to China last month drew criticism from rights groups as well as certain Western governments, including the United States, which claimed that the conditions placed by Chinese officials on the visit prevented complete and independent assessment of the rights situation.

“As my term as High Commissioner draws to a close, this Council’s milestone fiftieth session will be the last which I brief,” she said, without giving a reason.

Some diplomats said they had expected Bachelet, a former president of Chile who is seen as close to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to stay on after her term expires later this year. There was murmuring in the Geneva Council room when she made the announcement.

In the same speech, she said her office was working on an updated assessment of the human rights situation in China’s western region of Xinjiang, where there are widespread allegations that mostly Muslim Uyghur people have been unlawfully detained, mistreated and forced to work.

China denies all accusations of abuse in Xinjiang.

“It will be shared with the government for factual comments before publication,” she said of her report, without giving a timeline.

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