Palace sees better ties with UN rights council with new chief Bachelet

The Duterte administration on Thursday welcomed the selection of Chile's former President Michelle Bachelet to be the next United Nations human rights chief.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday chose Bachelet and urged the UN's 193 member states to approve her taking the place of Jordan's Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, a critic of President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-illegal drugs policy.

Zeid is stepping down at the end of the month after one four-year term on the job, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

"The entire community of states perhaps elected her for a reason, noting that no less than the United States has opted to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a news conference.

"I think the election of this new High Commissioner for Human Rights must be a result of compromise and we're optimistic that we will have better relations with the new High Commissioner for Human Rights," he added.

Bachelet, a victim of torture under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, first served as president of Chile from 2006 to 2010. She led U.N. Women, a body for gender equality and the empowerment of women, between 2010 and 2013, before returning to Chile where she again served as president from 2014 to 2018.

Duterte repeatedly slammed Zeid, who, along with other UN officials are constantly harping on allegations of state-sanctioned killings in the Philippines' war against illegal drugs.

In March, the Department of Justice filed a petition in court that accuses a Filipina special rapporteur of terrorism and alleged membership in the communist guerrilla movement, prompting Zeid to ask Duterte to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

The President, in response, criticized Zeid's background as a person coming from a country which he said did not have a democratic mandate.

Jordan is under a constitutional monarchy. —NB, GMA News