Despite our urgent appeal to Amnesty International (AI) Secretary-General Irene Khan, she went ahead and appeared at an Amnesty Switzerland panel with Jean Ziegler, Qaddafi’s chief ally at the UN. Although AI Switzerland’s press summary omits mention of Ziegler, the agenda of the Berne annual meeting shows the April 19, 2008 morning panel of Khan, Swiss FM Micheline Calmy-Rey, and Jean Ziegler, and was reported by Swissinfo.
To her credit, as the latter article describes, Khan rapped Calmy-Rey for failing the cause of human rights in her recent trip to Iran. Because our colleagues at Amnesty International often do such important work, we regret the undue legitimacy they granted to Ziegler, a human rights impostor. And we hope Ms. Khan will respond to our letter.
