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Original article: “No aceptemos la desesperanza”: Bachelet defendió su candidatura a la ONU con los derechos humanos como bandera
Bachelet Advocates for Human Rights as She Defends UN Candidacy: «Let’s Not Accept Despair»
Michelle Bachelet defended her candidacy for the United Nations Secretary-General position this Tuesday, emphasizing the importance of dialogue and human rights advocacy, while urging people to «not accept despair.»
“My main message is the urgent need for hope. Our world and the international order that underpins it are facing unprecedented pressure. My story is one of millions witnessing the consequences when that order fails,” stated the former President of Chile (2006-2010 and 2014-2018) before the General Assembly of the international body.
The ex-leader, lacking support from President José Antonio Kast’s government, expressed gratitude for the “trust” and backing she received from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, especially during this moment of danger and hope.
Amid this backdrop, Bachelet emphasized her aim to “recover the urgent need for dialogue.”
“Deliberations and multilateral cooperation have been the functional platform on which this organization was built, and they continue to serve as a bridge to the future,” she recalled.
She also stressed the need to modernize the United Nations, focusing on real, sustainable, and verifiable results, such as effective management, coherence, and trustworthy leadership.
The former president indicated that her candidacy seeks to address an international context marked by conflicts, inequalities, and institutional weakening.
“We must act in an environment of great uncertainty, strategic competition, escalating armed conflicts, serious violations of international law and human rights, deepening inequalities, climate change, and technological disruption. Trust in institutions has been severely undermined, and precisely because what is at stake, the raw material for transformation has never been more abundant,” she elaborated.
International Solidarity Helped Restore Democracy in Chile
During her presentation, Michelle Bachelet referenced her personal experience to illustrate how international solidarity can tip the scales toward democracy.
She recounted that when her father, a general in the Air Force, opposed the coup d’état on September 11, 1973, against President Salvador Allende, he was arrested and died on March 12, 1974, after suffering a heart attack in the Santiago Public Prison, where he had been interrogated and tortured by his fellow members of the Air Force.
“On the day of the 1973 coup in my country, my father bore the consequences when those in power betrayed the rule of law,” she recalled, highlighting that “international pressure and solidarity helped restore peace and democracy in my homeland.”
“When we desperately needed hope, the world offered it,” she underscored, as reported by Diario U. de Chile.
On the political front, she defended her track record, having been elected twice as president of Chile, becoming the first woman to lead La Moneda. Furthermore, she has held high-ranking positions within the international organization, including Executive Director of UN Women (2010-2013) and subsequently UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2018-2022).
Bachelet also spoke about her convictions, expressing that, in her view, “what the world needs is someone who is not fighting for a position but for principles, values, and a better world for everyone.”
“That is what I have always done,” she said.
Bachelet at the UN: “Let’s Not Accept Despair”
She highlighted that her primary motivation to seek to replace Portuguese Antonio Guterres, who is completing his second term as UN Secretary-General on December 31, 2026, “is because I believe that if I become Secretary-General, I must be worthy of the world’s peoples.”
She noted that she accepted to run as a candidate to “respond to the urgent call for hope, a hope for dialogue, for inspiration, a fervent hope to reignite faith in UN leadership.”
Towards the end of her address before the General Assembly, Bachelet cited political and cultural figures.
Specifically, she recalled the intervention at the UN by activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela, who “urged leaders not to allow any person to be deprived of freedom.”
She proposed that, in heeding Mandela’s call, she offers her experience “to lead this organization through this unprecedented moment towards a more inclusive world.”
The ex-president also referenced the song “Thanks to Life” by national singer-songwriter Violeta Parra.
“Violeta Parra, a legendary folk artist from my homeland, once sang that the two elements that forged her art were ‘your song, which is also mine, and the song of all, which is my own song.’
“It is a dream that finds its voice in the mouths of others, becoming words, and finally, a shared song,” she expressed.
“Let’s not accept despair; to the contrary. We must choose hope, repair, and anticipation. We all have to have the courage to cooperate for the world to thrive again, live in peace, and ensure the human dignity of all. That is my vision for the renewed future of the United Nations that I present to you today,” she concluded her message.
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