Chilean President Bachelet receives honorary doctorate Leuven

The Chilean President, Mrs. Michelle Bachelet, received an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) on June 10th. With this doctorate the university wants to highlight the great achievements of Mrs. Bachelet as an advocate of human rights and gender equality.

During her entire political career Mrs. Bachelet has always attached great importance to these topics. In the beginning as the first female Chilean minister of defense., later also as President of Chili. She worked on these important principles especially when she was the director of the then newly created UN-agency ‘UN Women’, that fosters gender equality and women emancipation worldwide.

The honorary doctorate also illustrates the good relations which already exist for decades between Chili and Flanders. In 1995 both governments signed a broad cooperation agreement that is still active. The Flemish universities, especially the KU Leuven and UGent have a long standing cooperation.

Minister-president Geert Bourgeois has sent the Chilean President a congratulatory letter of the Government of Flanders on the occasion of her honoring by the KU Leuven.