UN human rights chief hopes for reversal of ‘serious setbacks’ under Trump with new Biden administration

Michelle Bachelet says Biden’s promises to halt the separation of migrant families, address systemic racism and tackle climate crisis will have positive impact

The United Nations human rights chief has said President-elect Joe Biden’s pledges could reverse the “serious setbacks” that took place under Donald Trump when it comes to the rights of women, of LGBT persons, migrants and journalists. 

Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday that Mr Biden’s promises to halt the separation of migrant families, address systemic racism and tackle the climate crisis would have a positive impact on human rights in the US and globally.

The former president of Chile referred to the fact that she knew Mr Biden well from his time at vice president in the Obama administration, where he held responsibility for Latin America.

"President-elect Biden has made a series of promising pledges. For example expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections, an increase of the number of refugees to be resettled, end of family separation, end to the construction of the border wall, and an overhaul of the asylum system," Ms Bachelet said at a news conference.

She also spoke of Mr Biden’s pledge to rejoin the Paris Agreement, the international pact to fight the climate crisis by reducing  global emissions, which has its fifth anniversary this weekend. 

Mr Biden has said he plans to revitalise DACA, or the so-called "Dreamers" programme created by Obama that protects people from deportation and grants work permits to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants living in the US who arrived in the country as children. Mr Trump has tried to end the programme, but a judge last week ordered the federal government to reopen the programme to first-time applicants.

Ms Bachelet said: "[Biden] has made a series of promising pledges like the protection for child arrivals – and I think that's fantastic that they will stop the family separation – and of course all the issues with the frontier, the border with Mexico.

"If those pledges are implemented I think they will have a positive impact on human rights in the US and globally. They could also reverse policies carried out in the Trump administration which have led to serious setbacks for human rights including the rights of women, of LGBT persons, migrants or journalists," she said.

Ms Bachelet also said she regretted that five people including one woman, are scheduled to be executed at the federal level by 15 January, before Biden is scheduled to take office. 

Trump´s administration resumed carrying out executions earlier this year, following a 17-year hiatus of executions in the country.

"So we call for prompt review of all federal death row cases to avoid arbitrary or discriminatory application of the death penalty," she said.

Reuters contributed to this report