Jean Ziegler

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Jean Ziegler (born April 19, 1934) is a senior professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris. He was a Member of Parliament for the Social Democrats in the Swiss federal parliament from 1981 to 1999, now he is one of the biggest protagonists of the alter-globalization movement. He was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000 to April 2008.[1]

He gained international acclaim for his efforts on behalf of Jewish holocaust survivors seeking compensation from bank accounts allegedly linked to Nazi German in Swiss Banks. This work is documented in his book The Swiss, the Gold and the Dead: How Swiss Bankers Helped Finance the Nazi War Machine, published in 1998.[2]

In 2000, he was appointed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. In this role, he has visited many countries on behalf of the Commission on Human Rights, including Niger, Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Brazil, Guatemala, and the Palestinian territories to report on the situation of hunger and malnutrition in these countries.[3] Jean Ziegler is the author of various books on globalization and on what he calls the crimes committed in the name of global finance and capitalism, condemning in particular the alleged role of Switzerland in these. He writes in French and German.

Contents

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Swiss banks and foreign assets

According to CNN, in 1997 Ziegler alleged that Swiss banking officials lied to protect the assets of Mobutu Sese Seko, former President of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Ziegler said, "This is grotesque... This is a financial empire and it is here in Switzerland."[4]

[edit] Gaddafi Prize

The Weekly Standard reported in 2006:

In 1989 Ziegler was one of a group of... "intellectuals and progressive militants" who gathered in Tripoli to announce the launching of the annual "Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize," awarded by the government of Libya. Ziegler explained that the purpose of the Qaddafi prize was to counterbalance the Nobel prize, which, he said, constituted a "perpetual humiliation to the Third World."[5]

The prize was named after Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi (or Qaddafi, Khaddafi). Time magazine reported that although Libya funded the award, it would be chosen by a newly created Swiss foundation, and that Ziegler "said 'ironclad guarantees' assured that Tripoli's influence would not be felt... Nonetheless, human rights activists were clearly worried."[6] Winners have included Nelson Mandela, Louis Farrakhan, Fidel Castro, Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, and Hugo Chávez, as well as such general groups as "The indigenous peoples of the Americas" and "The Children of Iraq". In 2002, the awardees were "13 intellectual and literature personalities", including Ziegler and the French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. Ziegler turned down the prize on the grounds that he "could not accept an award or distinction from any country because of my responsibilities at the United Nations."[5]

[edit] Swiss banks and the Holocaust

In line with his claims about the crimes committed by the global finance and capitalism, he attacked the Swiss banks in connection with the dormant accounts scandal.

According to Ziegler, his "defense of the interests of Jewish communities in their claims against Swiss banks earned him acclaim in the United States and in Israel,"[cite this quote] while he faced attacks and court procedures in Switzerland as a result of this work. In 1998, he testified before Senator Alfonse D'Amato's hearing on the assets of Holocaust victims by the US Senate Banking Committee, against the Swiss banks and in support of the claims of the World Jewish Congress. His book The Swiss, the Gold and the Dead: How Swiss Bankers Helped Finance the Nazi War Machine was published in America in 1998 and received positive reviews.[2]

[edit] Support for Cuba

Ziegler has praised Cuba, stating in November 2007 that it is a world model for how it provides its people with food and praised it for cooperating with the United Nations and agreeing to allow him to report on the country's respect for the "right to food."[7] Reuters reported:

"We cannot say that the right to food is totally respected in Cuba, but we have not seen a single malnourished person," [Ziegler] said...

[His visit] was the first by a U.N. rights rapporteur to Cuba in almost a decade. He was invited by Havana after the U.N. Human Rights Council, of which Cuba is a member, decided in June to stop the scrutiny of human rights abuses in Cuba...

Ziegler said his visit was a sign that Cuba was willing to cooperate on human rights with the new U.N. body and would pave the way for visits by other rapporteurs.[8]

According to the National Post,

As early as 1964, Professor Ziegler expressed his admiration for the Cuban communists. That year, he served as Che Guevara's chauffeur when Guevara was on a trade mission in Geneva for the Cuban government. He was convinced by Guevara not to emigrate to the island nation, but to stay in Western Europe where he might fight more directly the enemies of Cuba's revolution and international Marxism...

Ziegler permitted undercover Cuban agents to monitor a press conference he gave in Geneva prior to his [visit to Cuba]... [who] took note of journalists' question and tone...[9]

Concerning the event in Geneva, the Associated Press reported that a U.N. spokeswoman

...said she was unable to prevent two Cuban diplomats from entering the [press conference]...

The U.N. strictly prohibits government officials from attending news conferences unless they are explicitly invited and included among those presenting...

When the news conference ended and [she] confronted the officials, they said they were diplomats at a U.N. mission, but declined to say which country they represented.

"I can only regret this incident," she wrote in a letter to the U.N. correspondents' association in Geneva.[7]

[edit] Opinion of the United States

According to The Weekly Standard, Ziegler believes that the United States is an "'imperialist dictatorship' that is guilty, among other atrocities, of 'genocide' against the people of Cuba by means of its trade embargo."[5] The Inter Press Service reported that Ziegler

...accused U.S. and British forces of using food and water as weapons of war in besieged cities in Iraq...

He said that the U.S.-led Coalition forces and the Iraqi Army use the military strategy of cutting off food and water supplies to cities under attack by insurgents, which frequently use the civilian population as human shields. The objective is to encourage civilians to flee before the attack.[10]

[edit] Criticism of Israel

Ziegler criticized Israel's conduct in the 2006 Lebanon War, stating that the International Criminal Court should investigate whether Israel is guilty of war crimes for a bombing campaign in Lebanon that blocked access to food and water. Specifically, Ziegler stated that "The government of Israel should be held responsible under international law for the violations of the right to food of the Lebanese civilian population."[11]

Itzhak Levanon, Israel's ambassador to the UN responded that "In all of his reports, Mr. Ziegler always transgresses the limits of his mandate. The latest report - which touches upon several external issues - is no exception." Israel also noted that Ziegler's report focused only on the impact of Israeli bombing in Lebanon and did not cover the effects of Hezbollah rocket fire on northern Israel."[11]

Ziegler reportedly stated on television that "the Israeli occupation is a colonial regime and an illegal military occupation from the UN's point of view, it continues to annex more Palestinian lands; and thus the Israeli occupation is the worst in the history of colonialism."[12]

The Forward reported in 2005:

In July, [Ziegler] told a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Geneva that Gaza was "an immense concentration camp" and added that it was a good thing that the "guards" were about to leave. This elicited a rare rebuke from a spokesman for Annan and from human rights commissioner Louise Arbour.

Ziegler countered that he was acting in his personal capacity and was actually quoting an Israeli scholar when he made the remarks. He described as "absurd and patently false" the accusation that he was comparing Israelis to Nazis. He recalled his role in the enactment of a Swiss law criminalizing antisemitic and racist statements.[13]

[edit] U.N. Appointments

Ziegler's appointment as U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food was criticized by The Weekly Standard, on the grounds that Ziegler is a sociologist by training and had no particular expertise on food or agriculture.[5]

In March 2008, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American and the ranking Republican on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, sharply criticized Ziegler's appointment to as an advisor to the UN Human Rights Council. Ros-Lehtinen's statement

...said "Mr. Ziegler has drawn criticism for his unyielding support of many of the world's most vicious dictators. He expressed 'total support for the Cuban revolution' and its leader, Fidel Castro, whose repressive regime has left hundreds of political dissidents to languish in jail."

Ros-Lehtinen also accused Ziegler of failing to address famine emergencies throughout the world and of using "his platform to consistently attack America and Israel"...

Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement after Ziegler's election saying it "attaches great importance to human rights and is pleased that a Swiss candidate will be able to contribute his expertise to the committee."[14]

[edit] Biofuels

Further information: Food vs fuel

Jean Ziegler has criticised the uptake of biofuels as their production can come at the expense of growing food. On 26 October 2007 Ziegler told a news conference at the UN that "it's a crime against humanity to convert agricultural productive soil into soil ... which will be burned into biofuel... What has to be stopped is ... the growing catastrophe of the massacre (by) hunger in the world." [15]


[edit] Bibliography (selection)

  • Une Suisse au-dessus de tout soupçon ("Switzerland, above all suspicion"), 1976.
  • La Suisse lave plus blanc ("Switzerland launders whiter"), 1990.
  • Le bonheur d'être Suisse ("The fortune of being Swiss"), 1994.
  • La Suisse, l'or et les morts ("Switzerland, the Gold, and the Dead"), 1997.
  • Les nouveaux maîtres du monde et ceux qui leur resistent ("The new rulers of the world and those who resist them"), 2002.
  • L'empire de la honte ("The empire of shame"), 2005.
  • "UN: Still Hungry to Bed", 2001.

[edit] Quotes

  • "I vowed never again, not even by chance, to side with the hangmen."
  • "Every child who dies of hunger in today's world has been murdered." (October 26, 2006)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Special Rapporteur on the right to food. UN Human Rights Council. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
  2. ^ a b Grose, Peter. "Gnomes and Nazis", The New York Times, 1998-04-05. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  3. ^ Country Visits. Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the right to food. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
  4. ^ "Swiss banks find only $3.4 million in Mobutu assets", CNN, 1997-06-03. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  5. ^ a b c d Muravchik, Joshua. "Qaddafi's Good Friend at the U.N.", The Weekly Standard, 2005-05-15. Vol. 11, No. 33. 
  6. ^ "World Notes Prizes", Time, 1989-05-08. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  7. ^ a b Klapper, Bradley S.. "UN Regrets Undercover Cubans at Event", ABC News, Associated Press, 2007-11-14. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  8. ^ Boadle, Anthony. "U.N. food envoy praises Cuba, sees need for reform", Canada.com, Reuters, 2007-11-06. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  9. ^ "The farce at the UNHRC", National Post, 2007-11-15. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  10. ^ Iglesias, Eulàlia. "Rights: U.N. Food Expert Condemns U.S. Tactics in Iraq", Inter Press Service. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  11. ^ a b "UN envoy tells international court to probe Israel for war crimes", Haaretz, Associated Press, 2006-10-05. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  12. ^ Ziegler: Israel is the worst colonial regime. Palestinian Information Center (2007-10-28). Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
  13. ^ Perelman, Marc. "U.N. Official Slammed for Criticism of Israel", The Forward, 2005-12-09. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  14. ^ "Outspoken Swiss Tapped by UN Council", ABC News, Associated Press, 2008-03-26. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  15. ^ Lederer, Edith. "Production of biofuels 'is a crime'", The Independent, 2007-10-27. Retrieved on 2008-04-22. 

[edit] External links