Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Chilean politician and physician who served two non-consecutive terms as President of Chile (2006–2010 and 2014–2018), becoming the country's first woman head of state. A pediatrician by training, she was detained and tortured under the Pinochet dictatorship in 1975 before going into exile, experiences that later shaped her human rights agenda.
Before the presidency, Bachelet served as Minister of Health (2000–2002) and Minister of National Defense (2002–2004) under President Ricardo Lagos — the first woman to hold the defense portfolio in Latin America. Her first presidential term focused on pension reform, expansion of early childhood education, and counter-cyclical fiscal policy during the 2008 global financial crisis, supported by Chile's sovereign copper savings.
Between her two terms, she was appointed the inaugural Executive Director of UN Women (2010–2013), the UN entity for gender equality created by General Assembly resolution 64/289. Her second presidential term advanced a tax reform, free tertiary education for lower-income students, a new electoral system replacing the binomial model, and the 2017 law decriminalizing abortion on three grounds (risk to the mother's life, fatal fetal conditions, rape).
From September 2018 to August 2022, Bachelet served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), succeeding Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. Her tenure included high-profile reports on Venezuela, Nicaragua, and the Philippines drug war. Her May 2022 official visit to China — including Xinjiang — drew criticism from rights groups who argued it was overly choreographed by Beijing; her office nevertheless released an assessment on Xinjiang on 31 August 2022, hours before her term ended, finding possible crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
Bachelet is frequently cited in MUN and IR contexts as a case study in transitional-justice leadership, gender-balanced cabinets (she pioneered parity cabinets in Chile), and the tensions between multilateral diplomacy and frank human rights advocacy.
Example
In August 2022, outgoing UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet released the OHCHR assessment on Xinjiang, concluding that China's treatment of Uyghurs may constitute crimes against humanity.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. She and her mother were detained at Villa Grimaldi in 1975 and subjected to torture; her father, Air Force General Alberto Bachelet, died in 1974 after detention for opposing the coup.
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