UN WATCH: SWISS NOMINATION OF KHADDAFI ALLY TO UN POST

Forwarded from G. Godwater:

action update 9 May 2006

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS PROTEST SWISS NOMINATION OF KHADDAFI ALLY TO UN POST Jean Ziegler: the U.S. is an "imperialist dictatorship responsible for all the world's misery." In 1989, Ziegler co-founded the "Khaddafi Human Rights Prize." In 2002, he won it himself. Latest Update: With the joint letter below, UN Watch leads a campaign by over 20 human rights and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to protest the outrageous and offensive nomination by Switzerland of its national, Jean Ziegler, to a new UN post. No one symbolizes the abuses of the discredited and now-defunct Human Rights Commission more than Mr. Ziegler, a close ally of the Libyan dictator. Fortunately, two countries have now also protested to the Swiss Government. Many more need to add their voices, with European states bearing a special obligation since the nomination of Ziegler falls under one of the three slots assigned to the Western European and Others Group. Regrettably, Switzerland still refuses to cancel its nomination. Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Philippe Jeannerat, offering continued unqualified support for the nomination, says that Mr. Ziegler is “one of the best specialists in civil, human and cultural rights.” (Le Matin, April 23, 2006.) To add your name to our protest, Take Action here. http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?ID=M7165232910884817027888865 Re: NGO Statement Opposing the Nomination of Jean Ziegler to a New UN Post April 11, 2006 Ambassador Blaise Godet Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations Office and to the other international organisations in Geneva Rue de Varembé 9-11 (6th floor) CH - 1211 Geneva 20 Geneva, Switzerland Dear Ambassador Godet, We, the undersigned human rights activists and non-governmental organizations, are gravely concerned to learn that Switzerland has nominated Jean Ziegler—founder of the "Muammar Khaddafi Prize for Human Rights"—for the position of expert on the UN Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. For the sake of human rights victims world-wide, and to avoid casting a shadow upon the reputation and credibility of the United Nations as a whole—particularly its new Human Rights Council, which is supported by Switzerland—we strongly urge your Government to rescind its decision. For six years, Mr. Ziegler has systematically abused his mandate as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, neglecting many of the world's food emergencies in order to pursue an extremist political agenda that includes support for repressive rulers like Cuba's Fidel Castro and Libyan Colonel Muammar Khaddafi. Mr. Ziegler's tenure, which is set to expire shortly, embodied everything that was discredited about the old Commission on Human Rights: gross politicization, selectivity, lack of professionalism and lack of credibility. (See "Blind to Burundi: Jean Ziegler's Neglect of the World's Food Emergencies," UN Watch report, October 2004.) Mr. Ziegler has a long and notorious record of supporting dictators and human rights violators. It is therefore difficult to understand why he was ever appointed to a UN post in the first place: Mr. Ziegler's support and special affinity for totalitarian rulers has been documented by Dr. Jan Marejko, the Swiss philosopher and journalist: "[Ziegler] went to Hanoi during the '80s, where he heaped praise upon General Vo Nguyen Giap and had kind words for Ho Chi Minh with whom he spent 'unforgettable moments drinking tea under a golden sun'. . . The fact that hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were at this time desperately trying to escape their country in search of freedom [...] was not worthy of consideration. Indeed, it would be hard to find an intellectual more stained by collaboration with evil regimes in the 20th century than Mr. Ziegler." (J. Marejko, "Che Guevara Lives at the UN," August 2002.) In 1989, shortly after the Libyan bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that killed 260 innocent men, women and children, Jean Ziegler announced the establishment of the "Muammar Khadaffi Human Rights Prize", in cooperation with the Libyan dictator. ("Le Nobel de Khadhafi-Les autorités libyennes créent un nouveau prix des droits de l'homme; Jean Ziegler met la main à la pate," L'Hebdo, April 27, 1989.) This award was then used to celebrate recipients such as Roger Garaudy, a notorious Holocaust denier. Yet Mr. Ziegler never renounced his actions. On the contrary: Mr. Ziegler himself won the prize in 2002. After a public outcry caused him to declare that he would not accept the award, Mr. Ziegler refused to acknowledge the obscenity of receiving a prize named after a human rights criminal. Rather, he said, "I told my Libyan interlocutors that I could not accept an award or distinction from any country because of my responsibilities at the United Nations." Jean Ziegler: apologist for repressive rulers like Colonel Khaddafi and Fidel Castro. What is worse, however, is to nominate Mr. Ziegler now —after witnessing the gross abuse of his UN mandate. As you know, this past July Mr. Ziegler became the only UN human rights expert in history to be denounced by his own organization's highest officials. ("Annan slams UN official," JTA, July 8, 2005; "Gaza comments by rights expert irresponsible— UN," Reuters, July 7, 2005.) Both Secretary-General Kofi Annan and High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour publicly denounced Mr. Ziegler for having compared Israelis to Nazis, a classic manifestation of anti-Semitism as defined by the European Union. Mr. Ziegler's record of UN abuse is well known: During the first four years of his mandate, Jean Ziegler publicly criticized the U.S. on 34 occasions. Yet he never spoke out for the hungry or criticized any party in 15 of 17 countries deemed by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to have a man-made food emergency. And of the 2 food emergency countries that he did criticize, he only did so once with respect to one (Ethiopia) and three times with respect to the other (Sudan). (Food emergencies ignored: Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, Haiti, Liberia, Russian Federation (Chechnya), Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda). Jean Ziegler almost never criticizes any government other than the U.S. and Israel. When he does, he suddenly dons the gloves of ginger U.N. diplomacy. Hence the Sudanese atrocities in Darfur for Ziegler are merely a cause for "concern," the role of the Khartoum regime in atrocities only "alleged." By contrast, the United States is an "imperialist dictatorship" responsible for all the world's misery, the U.S. is committing "genocide" in Cuba, and Israel commits "state terror" and "war crimes" with the U.S.'s blessing. Mr. Ziegler has never used such denunciations against the government of Sudan, or any other country . In summary, the appointment of Mr. Ziegler would cause grievous harm to the new Human Rights Council. As a strong advocate of the Council, we respectfully urge Switzerland to rescind its nomination of Mr. Ziegler for this or any other UN position. Sincerely, Mohamed Abdulmalek President Libya Watch for Human Rights Manchester, United Kingdom Libya Human Rights Solidarity Geneva, Switzerland Sylvia Iriondo President Madres y Mujeres Anti-Represion por Cuba (Mothers & Women against Repression) Miami, United States Angel De Fana Director Plantados Until Freedom and Democracy in Cuba Miami, United States Vo Van Ai President Vietnam Committee on Human Rights Paris, France Charles Mwape Regional Director for Africa Hope for Africa International Lusaka, Zambia Hillel Neuer Executive Director UN Watch Geneva, Switzerland Patrick Gaubert President International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme) Paris, France Jose Mathew Executive Director Don Bosco Ahaylam New Delhi, India Wendy Wright President Concerned Women for America Washington, DC, United States Babette Francis National & Overseas Coordinator Endeavour Forum Sydney, Australia Virginia Swain Director Institute for Global Leadership Worcester, Massachusetts, United States Yolanda L. Jackson International Liaison Women's Sports Foundation New York, United States Simonne Piazzini UN Representative Towns Agency for North-South Cooperation (Agence des cités pour la coopération Nord-Sud) Geneva, Switzerland Kok Ksor President Montagnard Foundation Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States Naghma Imdad Executive Director Savera Islamabad, Pakistan John Suarez Director Cuban Democratic Directorate Miami, United States Ms Sally Thompson Deputy Executive Director Thailand Burma Border Consortium Bangkok, Thailand Sara Winkowski President International Council of Jewish Women Montevideo, Uruguay C. Gwendolyn Landolt National Vice President REAL Women of Canada Ottawa, Canada Bernice Dubois Board Member European Council of WIZO Federations Geneva, Switzerland cc: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour The Right Honourable Mr. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada

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Copyright 2006 by United Nations Watch. All Rights Reserved.

Ms. G. Goldwater
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