UNITED NATIONS (CMC) — United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, has issued an alert over the rising number of threats, attacks and attempts to undermine national human rights institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The high commissioner for human rights said in a statement that “governments and others in positions of power”, including members of parliament and vigilante groups, were at “the root of the problem in a dozen countries.”

The UN said these rights institutions (NHRIs) “work closely” with Bachelet’s office and UN human rights mechanisms.

Bachelet said NHRIS “must not face any form of abuse or interference, especially political pressure”.

The UN said incidents reported to the UN Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) in the past two years have covered Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador and Haiti, along with Guatemala and Mexico, where, there were “attempts at the State level to remove the head of the independent rights office in those countries.”

Bachelet said she was urging governments across the region to abide by their responsibilities, and respect and protect the independence of the national human rights institutions, adding that the fact that complaints had come from a dozen countries in the region was “striking testimony to the expanding trend and magnitude of the problem”.

She acknowledged that NHRIs could post challenges for governments, “because their mandate meant they had a duty to expose gaps in the protection of human rights.”

But the High Commissioner for Human Rights underscored that governments could benefit from their independent assessments to improve conditions – “a role that any democratic society should welcome.”

Bachelet called on authorities to establish “prompt, thorough, independent and effective investigations into each and every alleged attack, act of reprisal, threat or intimidation against these key institutions”.