Michelle Bachelet | The champion of rights

It would have been out of character for Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, if she had not released the pending report on the human rights violations in the Xinjiang region of China, before her term ended. The report, which the Chinese government sought to stop publication, stated that the Chinese regime had committed “serious human rights violations” against Uighur people in the province. This was evident in the way Ms. Bachelet’s office approached the Supreme Court of India in March 2020, asking to be impleaded in the petitions challenging the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act after informing the Human Rights Council that the OHCHR had “great concerns over the CAA”. The Indian government averred that no foreign party had any “locus standi” on what was an internal matter of India — a reaction that was on similar lines to the Chinese government’s riposte to the OHCHR’s Xinjiang report. Life under dictatorship A two-time former President of Chile, Ms. Bachelet’s formative years were spent in repression by the military regime in the South American country.