Michelle Bachelet has been a Club de Madrid Member since 2010. She is also one of the Vice Presidents of Club de Madrid.
Michelle Bachelet was the first Chilean woman to hold the office, and the first President of Chile democratically re-elected since 1932.
In 1982, President Bachelet graduated from the Medical School of the University of Chile. Later, she studied military strategy at the National Academy of Strategic and Political Studies. As a student, Bachelet actively supported Salvador Allende’s Partido Socialista de Chile until Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état in September 1973 forced her to flee the country.
She returned to Chile in 1979 to finish her medical studies, where she advocated for the restoration of democracy. Following Chile’s return to democracy in 1990, Bachelet started her professional career as an epidemiologist. In 2000, Bachelet was named Minister of Health by then Chilean President, Ricardo Lagos. Two years later, she moved to head the Defence Ministry, becoming the first Chilean woman to lead this branch. Following a steady rise in her polling numbers during 2004, Bachelet accepted her party’s nomination for President in January 2005. A year later, she was elected President with 53.5 % of the votes. President Bachelet’s first term was characterised by the expansion of Chile’s Social Protection System for children, the elderly and the disabled; greater investment in education and health; labour law reforms; and gender equality as a polity of the State.
Between presidential terms, Bachelet was appointed the first-ever Director of UN Women. President Bachelet was re-elected as President again in 2014, obtaining 62.1 % of the votes. In this second period, she introduced free university education; new environmental policies; same-sex marriage; and created the Ministry for Women and Gender Equality.
In September 2018, following approval by the UN General Assembly, she was appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She held this position until August 2022.
