Center for Human Rights and Policy Studies (CHRIPS) and Saferworld

Summary

Bachelet frames prevention as the primary obligation of the Secretary-General. She pledges a presence in the field along with strengthened mediation capacity as a core part of UN preventive action.

Profile

Bachelet has consistently identified prevention as her first priority for peace and security. She has called for the Secretary-General to be an active preventive diplomat who is present in the field and always willing to intervene before conflicts escalate.

On reform, she has proposed reorienting the existing UN architecture – such as regional desks, field offices and the Mediation Support Unit – to prioritize prevention without creating new structures or budget lines. She has also identified developing the early-warning capacity of the Resident Coordinator system as a priority. Her approach to prevention draws on her background as a physician: she emphasizes diagnosing root causes rather than managing symptoms. In her General Assembly dialogue, she identified specific early-warning indicators she would monitor, such as patterns of human rights violations and changes in security force behavior. She recalled country visits where she witnessed these dynamics as High Commissioner for Human Rights, and predicted a coup that others dismissed.

Prevention is not limited to the peace and security pillar in Bachelet’s view. She has framed sustainable development as a conflict prevention tool, stating that failure to invest in development ultimately has a far greater cost. She has also committed to integrating women systematically into prevention and peacebuilding strategies, drawing on her experience as the first head of UN Women. She has stated that silence is not an option in cases of genocide or mass atrocity, and identified Article 99 of the Charter as a last-resort tool she would be prepared to use.

Areas where Bachelet has offered fewer details in her campaign so far include the financing of prevention functions within the UN system, specific reform proposals to enhance prevention, frameworks for emerging threats such as cybersecurity and autonomous weapons and the structural role of civil society as prevention actors beyond consultation.

Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding (CCCPA) and International Peace Institute (IPI)

Summary

Bachelet proposes context-specific, politically driven peace operations instead of military-heavy models. She advocates for regular technical mandate reviews, reduced logistical footprints, remote monitoring technologies and stronger human rights components. She emphasizes gender and regional partnerships.

Profile

Bachelet frames prevention as central to international peace and security, positioning peacekeeping and peacebuilding as tools for prevention alongside mediation, early warning and preventive diplomacy.

She has emphasized that military responses alone are insufficient, arguing that “the political component and the civilian component is as important as the police and armed forces component of a peacekeeping operation.” She has also cautioned against applying “a general peacekeeping model to every country in the world,” favoring mandates tailored to each situation’s priorities rather than the “multidimensional, big mandates.”

Among the current candidates, Bachelet has offered the most specific peacekeeping reform proposal thus far. Her reform ideas include improving operational efficiency in peace operations through “regular technical mandate reviews aimed at simplifying tasks, reducing logistical footprints, and making greater use of remote monitoring and data collection technologies.”

These positions build on a long record of engagement. As President of Chile, she maintained troop contributions to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti and expanded deployments to the Central African Republic and Colombia. At UN Women, she focused on the intersection between gender and peacekeeping, calling for peacekeeping mandates to include explicit provisions on protecting women peacebuilders and highlighting the value of gender advisors in mission settings. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, she championed human rights’ components within peace operations as “the soundest and most cost-effective investments,” promoted the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy and emphasized transitional justice as essential to lasting peace.

So far in her campaign, Bachelet has said little on peacebuilding more broadly. Her candidacy has emphasized a prevention-oriented approach to building and sustaining peace and addressing root causes.

ODI Global

Summary

Bachelet emphasizes principles of neutrality and impartiality. She supports greater anticipatory and preventive action and use of international and human rights law. She champions the UN’s field presence and supports safeguarding humanitarian presence and action amid budget cuts.

Profile

Bachelet’s approach to humanitarian action is firmly grounded in human rights and international humanitarian law. A refugee and survivor of torture herself, she has adopted a rights-based approach to migration and has demonstrable knowledge of contemporary displacement situations and the geopolitical context surrounding them. In her previous role as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, she engaged on several humanitarian crises ranging from Ukraine to the Rohingya crisis.

Her statements regularly invoke humanitarian law and principles. As High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bachelet repeatedly called on international human rights law and international humanitarian law to be respected in situations of conflict. In her General Assembly dialogue, she explicitly recognized the protection of civilians and the principles of neutrality and impartiality.

Bachelet has repeatedly stressed the importance of the UN having a strong field presence. During the General Assembly dialogue, she underlined the importance of protecting humanitarian presence and access from budget-driven erosion. Her vision statement proposes integrated UN responses that combine humanitarian assistance, peace operations and support for political dialogue as appropriate when prevention efforts have failed.

Her statements during the campaign have emphasized prevention (anticipating risks, responding early, mediation and avoiding the escalation of conflict), along with the importance of understanding the root causes of conflict and other crises, and sustained engagement with regional stakeholders.

While Bachelet has historically adopted an approach of cooperation and consensus-building more than outspoken advocacy, she has said during her campaign that engagement and dialogue should not come at the expense of speaking truth to power: silence is not an option in relation to genocide and atrocities.

Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Southern Voice

Summary

Bachelet centers Global South decision-making, including LCDs and SIDS. She emphasizes vulnerability-based development metrics, fairer global finance, climate justice and inclusive digital governance. She champions international financial architecture reform to address debt sustainability.

Profile

Bachelet’s approach to development seeks to pivot global development priorities toward reducing inequality and supporting the Global South, ensuring that international policy translates into tangible improvements in human lives.

Central to her vision is the need to identify country-specific vulnerabilities that accurately reflect structural disadvantages. She has argued that GDP should not be the dominant indicator for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), as relying solely on this metric can lead to premature graduation and the loss of access to critical concessional funding. Instead, she advocates for a multidimensional approach that incorporates geography, climate risks, and other external exposures.

To address systemic inequities, she has emphasized flexible debt solutions, including restructuring and crisis-driven relief while improving financial governance, curbing illicit financial flows, and strengthening domestic resource mobilization.

While most global leaders remain tethered to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) deadline, Bachelet has proposed a 2045 centennial "working horizon." This approach acknowledges the reality of lagging implementation, but risks removing the pressure of the 2030 targets and arguably sidesteps the root causes of current implementation failures.

Climate justice is central to Bachelet’s development approach. She has endorsed the integration of climate risk into development financing frameworks and reiterated the importance of loss and damage funding, adaptation support and robust international cooperation on environmental protection.

Bachelet has engaged on development and inequality in prior roles. At the International Labor Organization (ILO), she led the creation of a framework that is now a foundational reference for the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. As the first Executive Director of UN Women, she linked gender equality directly to economic empowerment and global governance. She also co-led the High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs at the World Bank, where she designed policies to address labor crises within the Global South and for youth populations.

Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and GQUAL Campaign

Summary

Bachelet emphasizes the equal importance of human rights alongside the other two UN pillars and calls for preserving its resources. She positions human rights as a tool for prevention. She commits to gender parity at the UN Secretariat.

Profile

Bachelet’s experience aligns closely with this agenda, and she is generally recognized as a leading voice.

As a candidate, she has committed to “consistent and full adherence to the Charter” and highlighted the Secretary-General’s role in promoting compliance with international law through dialogue and speaking out on non-compliance.

Bachelet has emphasized the equal importance and interdependence of the three UN pillars, noting that a return to “the basics” requires strengthening all three and that UN reform should not “hollow out” human rights and development mandates. She has defended the universality and indivisibility of rights and called for adequate financial and political support across pillars, noting limited resources for human rights and arguing to preserve its share.

She has emphasized human rights as the core of a dignified life and “preventive tools for lasting peace and global stability.” She has indicated that she would strengthen the human rights system’s coherence and agility, including through more integrated reporting across UN entities. She has emphasized strengthening monitoring through field presence and coordination with Resident Coordinators to monitor human rights violations as a basis for early-warning and timely action. She has not, however, proposed specific measures to strengthen human rights accountability mechanisms.

She has referred to human rights violations in conflict, climate change and economic policy and emphasized gender equality, including eliminating violence against women and ensuring women’s equal role in peace, development and leadership. She has called for stronger support to local defenders through digital training and legal and institutional protection. She has not developed proposals on other human rights issues or specific vulnerable groups.

On applying human rights principles in staffing, Bachelet has highlighted gender parity, geographic balance, and inclusion of underrepresented states, alongside Charter requirements and competence, as key criteria for senior appointments, framing representation as essential to institutional credibility.

CIVICUS and Transparency, Accountability and Participation (TAP) Network

‍Summary

Bachelet commits to working with civil society and addressing barriers to participation in UN processes. She commits to engaging civil society in her Secretary-General campaign. She calls for inclusion of women and youth in implementing WPS and YPS.

Profile

Bachelet has a substantial track record on gender, youth and civil society inclusion. As a President of Chile, she introduced legislation on gender equality, LGBT rights and reproductive rights. She served as the first Executive Director of UN Women, and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights she launched the first global Report on Protecting Youth in Civic Space.

Her tenure as High Commissioner has generated both praise and criticism on protection of civic space. She engaged directly with civic space threats, including expressing concerns about "rapidly shrinking civic and democratic space in Hong Kong." However, she was criticized by human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for failing to condemn human rights violations and mass repression by the Chinese government, including against the Uyghur ethnic community. In a report released on her last day in office, she named Beijing's treatment of Uyghurs as possible crimes against humanity and called for prompt action.

During her campaign, Bachelet has framed women and youth actors as agents of peace and development, and committed to meaningful youth inclusion and the implementation of existing frameworks such as the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agendas and their participatory and inclusive dimensions.

Bachelet has also committed to regular, structured engagement with civil society and working to reduce accreditation and visa barriers for civil society access to the UN. She has committed to upholding the 1 for 8 Billion Principles for Integrity in UN Secretary-General Campaigns, which include engagement with civil society during the campaign, and further pledged to carry the spirit of these commitments into her term as Secretary-General if appointed.

So far in her campaign, Bachelet has not directly addressed LGBTQ+ peoples, shrinking civic space or anti-gender pushback as a challenge for feminist civil society.

Plataforma CIPÓ and SHE Changes Climate

Summary

Bachelet frames climate change as an existential threat and a human rights challenge. She calls for urgent action to uphold the 1.5°C goal. She champions climate justice and adequate climate finance, including for loss and damage.

Profile

Bachelet’s campaign treats climate as an urgent priority. She has framed climate change as “the biggest threat to humanity” and positioned climate action as central to restoring trust in multilateralism. She has also identified it as a key sustainable development priority and framed the disproportionate burden of climate impacts on developing countries as a human rights challenge and a question of survival.

Bachelet has committed to using the “full moral authority” of the Secretary-General’s office to sustain urgency around the 1.5 °C goal and support “the most ambitious interpretation of the Paris Agreement.”

On reform, Bachelet emphasizes concrete solutions linked to international financial architecture reform. She has called for simpler access to climate funds, innovative financial instruments and responses that ensure climate justice, linking debt relief to investments in sustainable infrastructure, and a just energy transition, while identifying emerging technologies as opportunities to improve climate resilience.

On financing, she has called for a transparent system for tracking climate finance commitments delivery; grant-based rather than loan-based climate finance; and adequate resourcing for the Loss and Damage Fund as a matter of climate justice.

Bachelet has proposed that access to concessional finance should be determined not by GDP alone but should incorporate vulnerability aspects, including through a “multi-dimensional vulnerability index.” She has also linked debt restructuring and relief to countries facing climate disasters, describing climate as a global public good that requires financing.

Referring to the risks that climate change poses to oceans and marine species, she highlighted the importance of protected marine areas, and stressed the need to implement multilateral agreements on oceans.

Bachelet has experience leading climate initiatives in prior roles. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, she led the defense of human rights during climate crises, and in 2025, she co-led a regional Dialogue on Climate for COP30.

Article 109

Summary

Bachelet commits to a principled stance and being a moral voice on Charter violations, prioritizing prevention, gender and human rights. She proposes clear and targeted UN system reform. She calls for greater representation in the Security Council.

Profile

Of the current candidates, Bachelet lays out the most concrete, targeted proposals for reform. Her reform agenda centers on efficiency and staying true to the UN’s founding principles while adapting it to current challenges, including climate change. However, without more ambitious structural changes, her reform agenda is unlikely to  meet the scale of the challenges facing the UN.

Bachelet’s approach appears incremental and consultation-driven, with concrete proposals, including strengthening UN agencies and reviewing peace operations. She has proposed mainstreaming gender but cautions against merging agencies with distinct gender mandates. Preventive diplomacy features highly on Bachelet’s agenda, including enhancing UN field presence and prioritizing human rights and early reporting mechanisms.

For Bachelet, any efficiencies must retain the UN’s ability to deliver on the ground and preserve the balance of its three pillars. She has supported more equitable Security Council representation, collaboration with regional organizations and international financial architecture reform.

She has articulated an active role for the Secretary-General, helping to shape the agenda and to pave the “political viability” of necessary changes, while acknowledging that member states hold the final decision on initiatives like Security Council reform. While Bachelet has underlined the importance of closed-door diplomacy, she sees the Secretary-General as the “moral voice” on Charter violations and has committed to publicly calling these out should traditional diplomacy fail, making clear “silence is not an option” in relation to crimes against humanity and genocide.

Bachelet is an experienced leader who understands the UN system, having worked in a highly political environment as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – though civil society organizations have noted her mixed record in confronting major powers for their violations. As President of Chile, she led electoral and constitutional reform. According to observers, her diplomatic skill was central to expanding UN Women’s global presence.