Meet the Heroine: Michelle Bachelet Jeria

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018. She was the first woman to occupy the position. After leaving the presidency in 2010, while not, immediately reelectable, she was appointed the first executive director of the newly created United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). Bachelet was reelected in December 2013,with over 62% of the vote, bettering the 54% she obtained in 2006. Bachelet was the first President of Chile to be reelected since 1932. (Wikipedia)

During her presidential tenures, Bachelet promoted the rights of all but particularly those of the most vulnerable. 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 among her many achievements, 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. (ohchr.org)

Bachelet, a human rights advocate and former politician, was appointed as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in August 2018. She has taken on a four-year term at the 193-member organization at a time when major humanitarian crises are on the rise across the world. Since her appointment, Bachelet has condemned the Trump administration’s separation of migrant families and the Rohingya refugee crisis. Bachelet is a torture survivor who fled to Australia during Augusto Pinochet’s military coup in Chile. She sees herself as a “voice for the voiceless.” (Forbes).

#michellebachelet #donaldtrump #uspolitics #unwomen