UN Watch urges UN Security Council to reject Michelle Bachelet bid for Secretary-General
The non-governmental organization UN Watch has called on the United Nations Security Council to reject Michelle Bachelet’s bid to become the next UN secretary-general.
Black News 
Michelle Bachelet
In a press release and letters sent directly to Bachelet and Security Council members—including the US, UK, France, Denmark, Latvia, Greece, Panama, and Liberia—the advocacy group cited her 4-year tenure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as disqualifying.
UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer accused Bachelet of turning the human rights office into an entity that protected major abusers.
The organization released a list of 11 questions regarding her record, drawing from its September 2022 report, “Blind Eye to Dictatorships.” The report alleges that Bachelet’s office gave disproportionate attention to criticizing liberal democracies while remaining silent on severe abuses by authoritarian regimes.
Specifically, UN Watch questioned why Bachelet failed to initiate any timely public statements regarding the poisoning and arrest of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, the detention of over 1,000,000 Uyghurs in China, and Iran’s forced hijab laws.
The group also criticized her for issuing more stand-alone complaints against the United States than against the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela, and for issuing only one stand-alone criticism against North Korea.
Bachelet is one of five candidates campaigning to succeed António Guterres, whose term ends on December 31. The other candidates are Rafael Grossi of Argentina, Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica, Macky Sall of Senegal, and María Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador.
The Security Council is expected to make its recommendation in the coming months, followed by a formal appointment by the General Assembly before the end of the year.
