The panelists:
1. Lead panelist was UN expert Idriss Jazairy, who described Putin’s Russia as a human rights victim. Coincidentally, as UN Watch revealed today, Jazairy received $50,000 from the Russian government. As Algerian ambassador to UN, he once said “antisemitism targets Arabs”; and, most famously, he led a major effort to muzzle UN human rights experts. And then he became a UN human rights expert himself.
2. Alena Douhan, a Belarus academic with a soft spot for Russia, whose doctorate was on the principle of “non-interference” in countries’ “internal affairs.”
3. Alfred de Zayas, the Cuban-appointed expert for a “democratic and equitable international order.” Zayas has defended Iran’s right to nuclear weapons, and writes books claiming Germany suffered a “genocide” in 1945. Zayas is a hero to Holocaust deniers.
4. Jean Ziegler, co-founder & 2002 recipient of the Qaddafi Human Rights Prize. In his presentation, Ziegler actually defended the murderous Maduro regime of Venezuela, which he said was being victimized by a U.S. “economic war.”
5. Panel Chair: the ambassador of Venezuela’s Maduro regime, Jorge Romero. He effusively thanked Ziegler for his kind words.
6. Peggy Hicks, a top official in the office of UN high commissioner Zeid, delivered the opening statement. A former Human Rights Watch official, we hoped she would provide a dissenting voice. Instead, she echoed the same line. And when Ziegler spouted pro-Maduro propaganda, Hicks was silent.

The entire topic is a thinly veiled mechanism to attack the West and portray gross abusers like Sudan as victims. Those pretending to oppose coercive economic measures are silent about the many Arab countries who exercise a boycott against not only Israel, but also a secondary or tertiary boycott against those who do business with Israel.
The whole discussion on “unilateral coercive measures” is so transparently selective and politicized as to be a complete fraud. Similarly, the composition of the panel was a disgrace.
The fact that a former top official of Human Rights Watch would deliver remarks legitimizing this fraud, and taking it seriously, without a word of dissent — without a word of objection when panelist Ziegler defended a dictatorship — is shameful.

1. Even within the rogues' gallery that is the U.N. human rights Council, this panel speaking now is the mother of all rogues' galleries. pic.twitter.com/KvUejQ63oL

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 14, 2017

2. Jean Ziegler, panelist who just addressed @UN_HRC—defending Maduro regime—is co-founder & 2002 laureate of the Qaddafi Rights Prize. pic.twitter.com/KstAztFAlu

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 14, 2017

3. After UNHRC panelist Jean Ziegler defended Maduro regime, he was thanked by the panel chair: yes, #Venezuela's ambassador, Jorge Valero. pic.twitter.com/qfrw3MWDN8

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 14, 2017

4. Another panelist today was @UN_HRC expert Alfred de Zayas, a defender of Iran's right to nuclear weapons—and a hero to Holocaust deniers. pic.twitter.com/WraozLhQUz

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 14, 2017

5. Lead panelist was UN expert Idriss Jazairy—who defends Putin's Russia. As Algeria ambassador to UN, he said "antisemitism targets Arabs." pic.twitter.com/EalWGHllbG

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 14, 2017

6. Finally, OHCHR's @hickspeggy (ex-@HRW). I hoped she'd dissent—but she echoed same line. And when Ziegler praised Maduro—Peggy was silent. pic.twitter.com/NsQzuhEFEQ

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 14, 2017

The post The End of Human Rights at the U.N. — Panel was "Mother of All Rogues' Galleries" appeared first on UN Watch.

• Ziegler created and co-managed the “Qaddafi Human Rights Prize,” and gave the award to Hugo Chavez
• Chavez then nominated Jean Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council in 2004
• Ziegler was a long-time UN propagandist for the Chavez and Maduro regimes, absurdly claiming that Chavez “ended hunger” in Venezuela, saying repeatedly that the food situation was “formidable”, and the “Bolivarian revolution [was] extraordinary” for the whole continent
• When Ziegler was re-elected as a UNHRC expert in 2013, he embraced the Venezuelan ambassador on Swiss TV in appreciation for his political support

The post Next Venezuelan government must remove Chavez propagandist Jean Ziegler from UN Human Rights Council appeared first on UN Watch.

UN Watch protested in a detailed letter that documented’s Ziegler’s despicable record of siding with murderous regimes.

Executive Director Hillel Neuer took the floor in the Council to challenge Ziegler to his face: “I have a question for the panel member who in 1989 co-founded the Mummar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize, and who went to Tripoli, Libya, on Sept. 29, 2002, to himself win that prize.”

“Given that this Council eventually reversed its policy on the Qaddafi regime, and suspended Libya in 2011 for its gross and systematic abuses, do you regret your actions? The Swiss media reported that the prize was worth 100,000 Swiss Francs. Would you consider returning these funds to the Libyan people?” Full speech below

One of the members on the peace-building panel today was UNHRC official Jean Ziegler
seen above receiving the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize, on Sept. 29, 2002, in a
ceremony in Tripoli, Libya. The award money was estimated to be 100,000 Swiss Francs.

Panel on Peace-building and Human Rights Mainstreaming
Statement by United Nations Watch
Delivered by Mr. Hillel Neuer, 27 February 2017, 34th HRC Session

Thank you, Mr. President.
Peace-building and human rights are indivisible. As the UN Charter makes clear, maintaining peace and security requires preventing the outbreak of violence in the first place.
We believe that UN human rights mechanisms— if they work properly—have a critical role to play. If they work properly, this council can spotlight human rights abuses, scrutinize country records, and ensure accountability. All of this would act as an early warning system.
One of the classic case studies today of a state that desperately needs peacebuilding is Libya. The country has around 1,500 different militia.
The human rights situation is catastrophic. Carjackings and shootings in broad daylight are common. An EU report states that human rights defenders, journalists, and judges are being assassinated. Women won’t approach the police out of fear they could be murdered or raped. The situation is so bad that UNHCR won’t send international staff.
I would like to ask the panel: Could UN mechanisms have played a role to confront the four decades of gross and systematic human rights abuse by the regime of Col. Qaddafi, who used to torture dissidents and rape university students after he would lecture on campus?
Can the UN can draw lessons from how Col. Qaddafi’s regime in 2003 became Chair of this body’s predecessor, and how in 2010 it became a member of this Council?
Are there lessons to be learned from how Col. Qaddafi’s Geneva representative became one of this council’s independent experts, and also the Chair of this Council’s Durban Review Conference on racism?
Finally, I have a question for the panel member who in 1989 co-founded the Mummar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize, and who went to Tripoli, on Sept. 29, 2002, to himself win that prize.
Given that this Council eventually reversed its policy on the Qaddafi regime, and suspended it in 2011 for its gross and systematic abuses, do you regret your actions? The Swiss media reported that the prize was worth 100,000 Swiss Francs. Would you consider returning these funds to the Libyan people?
Thank you.

The post With UN's Jean Ziegler at the dais, Hillel Neuer asks him to return Qaddafi Prize money appeared first on UN Watch.

February 26, 2017

Dear Ambassador Haley,
We are alarmed that as U.N Secretary-General António Guterres tomorrow opens the 2017 session of the Human Rights Council, that body will be honoring its advisory committee member Jean Ziegler—a notorious anti-American ideologue who has accused the U.S. of committing “genocide” in Cuba, supported the terrorist group Hezbollah, and is the co-founder and 2002 recipient of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize—as one of its high-level speakers, together with High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and UNDP chief Helen Clark.
Moreover, two weeks later, Mr. Eric Tistounet, Head of the Human Rights Council branch of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), will be speaking together with Mr. Ziegler at the Geneva screening of a film “Jean Ziegler: Optimism of the Will,” the publicity for which heaps praise upon Ziegler as a great “intellectual.”
We urge you to speak out and condemn the U.N.’s obscene celebration of this apologist for brutal dictators and terrorists—and to try to stop it. The United States gives some $40 million to OHCHR in regular budget and voluntary funds, and yet it seems this office seeks to insult the U.S. by honoring a leading anti-American figure.
Both of these events supported by the U.N. are designed to obscure Mr. Ziegler’s shameful record, which includes:

• In 2006, Mr. Ziegler said, “I refuse to describe Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It is a national resistance movement.”

• Ziegler has for decades acted as a propagandist for the world’s worst dictators, including Muammar Qaddafi, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe, as I documented in a 2008 essay.

• In 1989, shortly after Libyan agents blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, Mr. Ziegler went to Libya to co-found the “Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize.” He announced it to the world. All of this is fully documented in our 2006 report, confirmed by the Neue Zurcher Zeitung.

• Under Mr. Ziegler’s supervision, the prize was awarded to anti-Western dictators Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and to antisemites such as Louis Farrakhan and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad.

• In 2002, Mr. Ziegler himself received the Qaddafi Prize, together with convicted Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, whom Ziegler had previously praised as a “leading thinker of our time.

• Astoundingly, when challenged in 2006, Mr. Ziegler completely denied any involvement with the Qaddafi Prize. He blatantly lied on repeated occasions over seven years—until, in 2013, video evidence emerged of Ziegler receiving the prize.

• Ziegler has never accounted for the estimated $100,000 award money—the receipt of which violates U.N. ethics rules, and for which he must be investigated by High Commissioner Zeid, who is copied on this letter.

• In 1986, Mr. Ziegler served as advisor to Ethiopian dictator Colonel Mengistu on a constitution instituting one-party rule.

• In 2002, Mr. Ziegler praised Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, saying, “Mugabe has history and morality with him.”

• According to Le Monde, Mr. Ziegler paid friendly visits to Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Kim Il-Sung in North Korea.

• Ziegler was a vehement supporter of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, whose regime Mr. Ziegler hailed during an official U.N. visit, while he refused to meet Cuban dissidents.

• Ziegler embraced Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, absurdly saying recently that “he ended hunger”; Venezuelans are now starving. In return, Chavez nominated Ziegler to a U.N. post in 2004. Ziegler has a similar pact with the Maduro regime.

For these reasons and more, Mr. Ziegler has been condemned by leading authorities:

• U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power declared in 2013 that Mr. Ziegler was “unfit” to serve in the UNHRC.

• Seventy members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to the U.N. in 2005 citing Mr. Ziegler for anti-Semitism, and urging his removal.

• Ziegler was specifically named as an offender by members of the U.S. Congress in Sec. 501(10) of the draft bill entitled United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act of 2011.

• Ziegler was condemned in 2005 by both U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and High Commissioner of Rights Louise Arbour for his remarks comparing Israelis to “concentration camp” guards. His references to Israel were, in Arbour’s words, “evocative of Nazi Germany,” and “inflammatory.”

• When Mr. Ziegler served as UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, World Food Program Executive Director James T. Morris sent urgent letters to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warning that Ziegler had engaged in “profoundly immoral” actions and “inflammatory” politics that endanger the lives of millions of starving people worldwide.

• The Swiss Parliament’s foreign affairs committee opposed Ziegler’s nomination in 2013, saying it was “inappropriate.”

Likewise, Mr. Ziegler has been condemned by numerous civil society groups:

• A group of 45 NGOs condemned Jean Ziegler in 2011 for his role a propagandist for Qaddafi, and called for an investigation.

• In 2006, a coalition of 20 human rights activists condemned Jean Ziegler’s nomination for re-election.

• Ziegler has been condemned repeatedly by leading organizations fighting antisemitism, including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and B’nai B’rith International.

Ambassador Haley, you have spoken firmly against the U.N.’s abuse of its own founding principles.
Mr. Ziegler’s 17-year career as a U.N. Human Rights Council “expert” has been dedicated to supporting tyrannies and terrorists, and embodies the debased values of a distinct political culture.
Accordingly, we urge you to intervene against the elevation of Mr. Ziegler by the Human Rights Council with the complicity of the Office of the High Commissioner.
Yours truly,
Hillel C. Neuer
Executive Director
 
cc:  U.N Secretary-General António Guterres
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein

The post Letter to Amb. Nikki Haley on U.N. honoring Jean Ziegler, supporter of tyrants & terrorists appeared first on UN Watch.

29 September 2002: Jean Ziegler receives Qaddafi Human Rights Prize—and $100,00 award  

GENEVA, Sept. 29 – Switzerland should temporarily suspend its “problematic” nomination of Jean Ziegler for re-election tomorrow to the UN Human Rights Council, “until questions are resolved about significant funds he apparently received from the Qaddafi regime and other serial human rights abusers,” urged UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group that is accredited with the United Nations.
Switzerland should also suspend the nomination until the UN Legal Advisor determines how Ziegler can run for a fourth term when Art. 74 of the UNHRC charter prohibits re-election more than once, said UN Watch. For details, documents, and links, please click here.
“Exactly 14 years ago today—on 29 September 2002—Jean Ziegler, already a UN human rights official, was on stage at a ceremony in Tripoli, Libya, as they placed the Moammar Qadd   afi Human Rights Prize around his neck,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
“Ziegler was part of the founding jury of the Qaddafi Prize in 1989, he was the one who announced it to the world in 1989, and he helped manage it as vice-president of a Libyan-funded front group in Geneva known as ‘Nord Sud XXI’.”
“The prize included both a medal—and a cash award of $100,000. For the next decade Ziegler repeatedly denied any connection with the prize. In 2013, however, he suddenly claimed that he had returned the medal. Yet he never explained what he did with the money, which was all funds stolen by Qaddafi from the Libyan people.”
“Ziegler should fully open up his financial accounts for inspection and allow an independent investigation concerning money he received from Qaddafi, and from other regimes for whom he lobbied at the UN, including the Castro, Chavez, and Al-Bashir regimes,” said Neuer.
An earlier Swiss nomination of Ziegler in 2013 was criticized by the Swiss parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and by Swiss MPs from three different parties, including Christian Lüscher, Walter Muller, Christa Markwalder, Kathy Riklin, and Andreas Aeb.

“While Gaddafi was raping countless women and girls across Libya, Jean Ziegler was busy promoting the Libyan dictator as a hero of human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
Wikileaks revealed that the head of the UN’s World Food Program in 2002 urged UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to remove Ziegler for his “profoundly immoral” and “inflammatory” politics, which “had a negative impact on the lives of the hungry.” For details, documents, and links, please click here.
At an evening ceremony on September 29, 2002, Ziegler was in Tripoli where he himself received the Gaddafi Prize, together with convicted French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, following a 4-day conference that discussed “space and time, death and eternity, as well as the style, language and the irony in Moammar Gaddafi’s writings.”
Ziegler joined the council in 2000 as its hunger expert, a position created for him by Cuba’s Fidel Castro government in 2000. In 2008, he moved to the council’s advisory committee. In 2012, his application to stay at the UN was rejected.
Ziegler in the past has also been condemned by the the government of Canada, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, High Commissioner Louise Arbour, the head of the World Food Program, and 45 human rights groups.
The UNHRC election is tomorrow.

The post Switzerland Should Suspend UNHRC Nomination of Jean Ziegler Ahead of Tomorrow's Election appeared first on UN Watch.

Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Cuba seek re-election to UNHRC

AGAIN: Swiss nominate Jean Ziegler to be UN rights expert—even though
he was the UN agent of serial rapist Muammar Qaddafi

CLICK FOR VIDEO 

GENEVA, Sept. 21, 2016 — Dictatorships including Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba and Russia are running for re-election to the UN’s highest human rights body, revealed UN Watch executive director in an interview today on Wall Street Journal TV. The election will take place on October 28th at the UN General Assembly, and UN Watch together with Human Rights Foundation will be leading the opposition.
In addition, UN Watch revealed today that Jean Ziegler—the UN apologist for Qaddafi as the tyrant kidnapped and raped hundreds of teenagers—has been nominated yet again by Switzerland, as the sole candidate of the Western group, to be an expert advisor at the UN Human Rights Council. As a prior UN expert, Ziegler also defended dictator Robert Mugabe, the Hezbollah terrorist group, and genocidal Sudan.
UN Watch has launched a campaign urging the U.S. and fellow Western group members UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium to fight Ziegler’s candidacy.

Take Action: Click here to block UN election of Hezbollah backer Jean Ziegler.
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Above: Jean Ziegler co-founded and then won the Qaddafi Prize. Later he denied any
links to the prize—until UN Watch exposed the video of Ziegler at the 2002 prize ceremony. 

The post Issue 607: U.N. Dictators & Their Apologists appeared first on UN Watch.

GENEVA, Sept. 21, 2016 — Switzerland has just nominated a notorious apologist for dictators and rapists including Muammar Qaddafi as the Western Group’s sole candidate to be a UN human rights expert, reported UN Watch today. The Geneva-based watchdog group sent a letter to Western countries urging them to oppose Jean Ziegler in the Sept. 30th election at the UN Human Rights Council. See letter below.

PETITION: TAKE ACTION NOW: OPPOSE U.N. ELECTION OF JEAN ZIEGLER
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Letter to UNHRC Members France, Germany, UK, Netherlands and Belgium, and to U.S. as Western Group coordinator

Excellency:
We urge you to oppose Switzerland’s absurd nomination of Jean Ziegler, as the sole candidate of your Western Group, to the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, the election for which is scheduled for September 30, 2016.
Mr. Ziegler, who has written books advocating “reasonable hatred of the West,” would absurdly occupy one of only three seats allotted to Western countries.  The official UN criteria for the position are expertise in human rights, high moral standing, independence and impartiality.  An analysis of Mr. Ziegler’s record raises serious questions as to his satisfaction of these requirements.  Concerns include:
• Mr. Ziegler’s abuse of his former UN Mandate: When he served as UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Mr. Ziegler ignored many of the world’s most starving populations, instead focusing attention on his personal political agenda.  As documented in the UN Watch report “Blind to Burundi,” during 2000 to 2004, Mr. Ziegler systematically failed to speak out for numerous food emergencies, in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone and elsewhere.
In 2002, World Food Program Executive Director James T. Morris sent  urgent letters to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warning that Ziegler as Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food had engaged in “profoundly immoral” actions and “inflammatory” politics that endanger the lives of millions of starving people worldwide. The WFP chief’s 24 October 2002 letter, published on Wikileaks, makes the most severe accusations against Jean Ziegler — and seeks to remove him.
In the letter, the World Food Program—the real expert on hunger—accuses Mr. Ziegler of making it “harder rather than easier for WFP to help hungry people fulfill their right to food in emergencies.” Mr. Ziegler, says the WFP, is “playing politics with aid,” and his actions and statements are “profoundly immoral” and “unconscionable.”
According to the World Food Program, the “clearly inflammatory politics played by Mr. Ziegler has had a negative impact on the lives of the hungry.” Moreover, Mr. Ziegler’s “public statements and the reports he has submitted to the General Assembly show a serious lack of understanding of economics and the details of the food situation in the areas he professes to analyze on behalf of the High Commissioner.
• Mr. Zieger’s support for serial violators of human rights: In 1986, Mr. Ziegler served as advisor to Ethiopian dictator Colonel Mengistu on a constitution instituting one-party rule.  In 2002 he praised the Zimbabwean dictator, saying,  “Mugabe has history and morality with him.”  According to Le Monde, he paid visits to Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Kim Il-Sung in North Korea.  Mr. Ziegler is also a long-time supporter of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, whose regime Mr. Ziegler hailed during an official visit in October, while he refused to meet Cuban dissidents. Also this year, during an interview in Lebanon, Mr. Ziegler said, “I refuse to describe Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It is a national resistance movement. I can understand Hezbollah when they kidnap soldiers…”
• Mr. Ziegler’s involvement with Libyan propaganda: In 1989, shortly after Libyan agents blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, Mr. Ziegler went to Libya to co-found the “Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize,” and served as its Geneva spokesman.  The prize has since been awarded to anti-Western dictators such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.  It has also been awarded to notorious racists and anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad.  Bizarrely, in 1989 he boasted of it, Mr. Ziegler later denied, over a period of 10 years, any involvement with the prize; in 2013, faced with video evidence, he admitted that he received the prize. Ziegler’s cover-up was exposed by UN Watch, Swiss TV, the Neue Zurcher Zeitung, and Le Matin.
• Ziegler’s support for convicted Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy: In 1996, Mr. Ziegler publicly defended Roger Garaudy, the French Stalinist whose book, “The Founding Myths of Modern Israel,” denies the Holocaust. “All your work as a writer and philosopher,” Mr. Ziegler wrote on April 1, 1996, “attests to the rigor of your analysis and the unwavering honesty of your intentions.  It makes you one of the leading thinkers of our time.”  In 2002, Mr. Garaudy was awarded the Qaddafi Prize—the same year that Mr. Ziegler received it as well.
Many of the world’s leading authorities have objected to Mr. Ziegler’s practices.  In 2005, both UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and High Commissioner Louise Arbour publicly denounced Mr. Ziegler for having compared Israeli soldiers to concentration camp guards.  He is the only UN expert to have been so reprimanded.  Seventy U.S. congressmen wrote to the UN, citing Mr. Ziegler for anti-Semitism. The Canadian government filed an official protest.
In April 2006, an international coalition of 15 non-governmental organizations, including victims of Cuban and Libyan abuses, protested Mr. Ziegler’s nomination as a UN expert, citing his disturbing record.  Similarly, many scholars have questioned Mr. Ziegler’s academic credentials.  For example, when he was made professor at the University of Geneva, eminent historian Herbert Luthy returned his honorary doctorate in protest.
We note that late Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chavez nominated Mr. Ziegler for the same post in 2004, but that he failed to win election.
To avoid causing even further harm to the credibility of the world’s highest intergovernmental human rights body, we urge you to oppose this nomination.
Thank you.

_______________

Documents and Sources

• UN Watch annotated version of 2013 Swiss Note Verbale for Jean Ziegler
• Protest in 2008 against Ziegler by 45 NGOs (French version — en francais)  (German version — Deutsch)
• Journal de Genève (in French) reporting on Ziegler’s 1989 role as spokesman for the Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize, and his claims about “Libyan democratization.”
• Ziegler’s attempts to cover up his key role in the prize were exposed by Swiss TV’s respected “10vor10” program (video with English subtitles); and by the Le Matin newspaper (in French), which displayed one column of Ziegler’s claims, side by side with another column of contradictory information.
• Detailed UN Watch report and original sources showing Jean Ziegler’s role as co-founder of the Qaddafi Human Rights Prize.
• Supplement: documents from official Qaddafi Prize website showing Jean Ziegler’s leadership role.
• Article in Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Switzerland’s leading newspaper, confirming Ziegler’s ties to Qaddafi Prize.
• United Nations World Food Program chief calls for Ziegler to be removed for harming hungry people

The post Swiss nominate rapist's apologist as UN human rights expert appeared first on UN Watch.

On the 10th anniversary of the PLO-requested World Court advisory opinion that declared Israel’s security barrier illegal, and which declared that Israel could not invoke the right of self-defense, it’s worth recalling one of the opinion’s most underreported flaws: its reliance on the findings of UN official Jean Ziegler — founder and 2002 winner of the “Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights” — as a credible source of fact and law. (ICJ Opinion, p. 190)
The court invoked the Swiss clown as an expert only two years after Ziegler went to the annual Tripoli ceremony for the Gaddafi regime to place the human rights award around  his neck, something he completely denied until UN Watch found the video. See Ziegler getting the prize at minute 1:22:

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