The Real Life Monster That Sits on The UN’s Human Rights Council

by Mark Angelides

 
Jean Ziegler sits on the UN Council for Human Rights. He is a large figure on the political stage and is often drafted in to sit on a range of commissions (especially those related to food and distribution). He seems to be respected by most world leaders and has a long history of working with International rights groups. But this man has a checkered history that should concern those that believe in free nations and even more so, those that are concerned that the UN is being driven by an agenda that is unfriendly to modern democracy.
Ziegler is looked up to as a bastion of morality, but let’s take a look at his record and political positioning (much of this is sourced from Wikipedia and cross-checked through other publications):

• Ziegler defended the principle of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe‘s land reforms in 2002, saying that Mugabe had “history and morality on his side”.
• Ziegler’s critics have accused him of working as an adviser to Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in the drafting of Ethiopia’s 1986 constitution, which established the country as a one-party state.
• Ziegler described the world as an “immense extermination camp”, wherein 40,000 people died of hunger every day. He blamed this on an economic system that allowed the rich to become richer, and the poor to become poorer
• 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.
• 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.”
• 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.”
• 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.”
• Ziegler, according to a pro-Palestinian website, 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.

• 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 as an advisor to the UN Human Rights Council. Ros-Lehtinen’s stated:
• 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.[4]
• The American Jewish Committee (AJC) opposed Ziegler’s bid for re-election to the UN Human Rights Office in 2009. The AJC cited his past support for Roger Garaudy (convicted Holocaust denier) and his criticisms of Israel.

And if that’s not enough for you to be curious about why Ziegler is sitting on the Human Rights Council:
Just this week, Ziegler spoke about how Poland and Hungary should be penalized by the EU for not following the EU’s refugee quota system. he said:
“…if the EU were to suspend the solidarity payments to the Eastern European countries for 14 days the barbed wire fences, the prisons and the terrible camps would be gone”.
So the guy who said the US was “guilty of genocide” for trade sanctions against Cuba, is suggesting the same punishment for free nations that refuse to follow the EU’s orders.
There is even a 2016 film about Ziegler (The Optimism of Will Power. animated, oddly enough) in which it recounts “In 1964, Jean Ziegler was asked by Che Guevara to fight the “capitalist Monster”.
 
This is not a person who should be lecturing the world on Human Rights, and the fact that he has been awarded this position of power tells us a lot about those that run the UN agenda.