Michelle Bachelet
Michelle BacheletReuters

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday approved the appointment of former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet as the world body's new human rights chief, Reuters reports.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the appointment of Bachelet on Wednesday. She will replace Jordan's Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, who is stepping down at the end of the month after a four-year term.

Al Hussein was known for his fiery rhetoric, particularly against U.S. President Donald Trump, who he once compared to the Islamic State. He was also critical of Israel.

Bachelet, who was tortured under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, was the first woman to be president of Chile.

Zeid told reporters in New York earlier this month that he did not seek a second term because he did not believe key world powers, including the United States, China and Russia, would support him.

The U.S., which is pushing back against the ongoing anti-Israel at the UN, last month announced its withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), with Ambassador Nikki Haley deriding it as a “cesspool of political bias.”

While the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) and the HRC are separate bodies, they work together in promoting the UN’s agenda on human rights

After Bachelet’s nomination, Haley said it was incumbent on Bachelet “to avoid the failures of the past” and added, “The UN has failed to adequately address major human rights crises in Iran, North Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and elsewhere, or stop its chronic, disproportionate obsession with Israel. It is up to Ms. Bachelet to speak out against these failures rather than accept the status quo. We hope that she does. The United States will.”

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)