Jean Ziegler (; born Hans Ziegler; 19 April 1934 – 10 June 2026) was a Swiss academic, advisor and sociologist who was professor of sociology at the University of Geneva, the Graduate Institute of Development Studies and the Sorbonne, Paris, as well as vice-president of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations Human Rights Council. He was previously Member of the Swiss Parliament for the Social Democrats from 1981 to 1999. Ziegler also held several positions with the United Nations, especially as Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000 to 2008, and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council from 2008 to 2012.
Early life and teaching career Jean Ziegler was born in Thun, Switzerland, on 19 April 1934. His father was the president of the town's court and a reserve artillery colonel.
Ziegler originally was a member of a conservative Swiss student group. He studied at the universities of Bern and Geneva. He also earned his barrister brevet at the bar association of Geneva. He then moved to Paris to study sociology at the Sorbonne. He had doctorates in Law and Sociology.
While in Paris he met Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who introduced him to Marxism, and reported on the Algerian War for their magazine Les Temps Modernes. Simone de Beauvoir suggested he change his name from Hans to Jean, which she considered a more dignified byline. He joined the French Communist Party which expelled him for actively supporting the Algerian independence. In 1952, he met Abbé Pierre in Paris, and became the first director of the Emmaus charitable community of Geneva.
In 1961 he joined a British civil servant as a translator on a trip to the newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo whose democratically elected president Patrice Lumumba was deposed with assistance of Belgium and the United States of America to be replaced by the military officer and dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. He witnessed local children starving and being mistreated by the president's guards while Mobutu was siphoning the country's wealth to his private bank accounts in Switzerland which led him to strive for the equal distribution of wealth between rich and poor countries in his further life.
In 1964, Ziegler met Che Guevara on his visit to Geneva, and befriended the Cuban revolutionary driving him around Switzerland. Ziegler revealed to Atossa Araxia Abrahamian that when he asked Che Guevara whether he could follow him to Cuba the latter said: "Here is where you were born, and here lives the monster's brain. It is here that you must fight."
Ziegler became professor at the University of Grenoble and until 2002 was an instructor at the University of Geneva and at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, where he taught sociology. He also held the position of associate professor at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Election and appointment to public offices
In 1963, Jean Ziegler was elected at the municipal council of Geneva as a social democrat. From 1967 to 1983 and from 1987 to 1999, he held a seat at the Swiss National Council. While there, he was the president of the "Swiss-Third World" parliamentary group. He joined the commissions for foreign affairs, science and international trade.
Nominated by Switzerland, he was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000 to 2008. Following Ziegler's election, the Swiss government stated that it "attaches great importance to human rights and is pleased that a Swiss candidate will be able to contribute his expertise to the committee". As one of the 18 initial members of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations Human Rights Council who were elected on 26 March 2008, Jean Ziegler served a one-year term receiving forty of forty-seven votes in 2008 to finish first in a field of seven candidates. He concluded his second term 30 September 2012, but was reelected on 26 September 2013 with a term lasting until 30 September 2016. He was also a member of the advisory board of the non-profit organization Business Crime Control which targets white-collar crime.
Issues during diplomatic career As a United Nations official, Ziegler has dealt with both general worldwide issues such as the use of biofuels, as well as country-specific issues. Regarding the former, Ziegler has criticized the uptake of biofuels because 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 oil ... which will be burned into biofuel. What has to be stopped is ... the growing catastrophe of the massacre [by] hunger in the world."
Swiss banks In 1997, Ziegler alleged that Swiss banking officials were lying 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." In 1994, he had already proposed to the Swiss parliament to confiscate the finances of Mobutu and give it back to the country after the end of Mobutu's dictatorship, but his proposal was declined.
Ziegler also criticized the Swiss banks in connection with the dormant accounts scandal. 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.
For his accusations against the Swiss banking system, Ziegler faced nine defamation trials, and was sentenced to pay 6.6 million Swiss francs (£5.8m), which practically forced him to declare bankruptcy, "at least on paper".
Gaddafi Prize and Roger Garaudy A prize foundation fund in the name of Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi was established in Geneva in 1989, and Nelson Mandela was selected the first recipient of the fund's Gaddafi International Human Rights Prize."Mandela wins Gadhafi prize", The Record, 24 April 1989. Some newspaper accounts have identified Ziegler as one of the panel members who administered the fund in 1989."Gadhafi honors Mandela", Chicago Sun-Times, 24 April 1989, p. 12. He has denied launching the award, however, and has said that he was merely "consulted"."Zieglers Libyen-Connection ", Neue Zürcher Zeitung (25 June 2006). Although Libya funded the award, its winners were to be chosen by the Swiss foundation, and Ziegler said that "ironclad guarantees" had been established to ensure that the Libyan government would not influence the selection.
Gaddafi Prize officials announced thirteen disparate winners in 2002, including Ziegler and the French philosopher and convicted Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. Agence France-Press noted the irony of Ziegler, who had worked for Holocaust reparations in Switzerland, sharing the award with Garaudy."French Holocaust denier, Swiss campaigner for victims share Kadhafi prize", Agence France-Press, 30 September 2002. Ziegler turned down the prize, saying that he "could not accept an award or distinction from any country because of my responsibilities at the United Nations"."Swiss human rights campaigner turns down "Kadhafi" award", Agence France-Press, 1 October 2002.
Ziegler's alleged associations with the Gaddafi Prize has been the subject of criticism. Alan Johnson, writing for The Guardian online in 2008, criticized Ziegler for launching the prize four months after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 (which many believe to have been the work of Libyan agents).Johnson, Alan. "Appointment with Farce", The Guardian 5 April 2008. Joshua Muravchik from the American Enterprise Institute also criticized his involvement with the award in a 2006 article for the Weekly Standard.
On 25 March 2011, the Swiss television channel Schweizer Fernsehen ran a report on Ziegler's alleged associations with Gaddafi. The piece included criticism of Ziegler from Pierre Weiss, a sociologist and member of the Swiss Liberal Party. Ziegler, for his part, said that he was never a friend of Gaddafi and repeated his claim that he never oversaw the Human Rights Prize.10vor10: http://www.srf.ch/player/tv/10vor10/video/ruecktrittsforderung-an-jean-ziegler?id=199ccfc1-2cc4-46e9-ad97-99eb72de2f0b
The following month, the Salzburg Music Festival withdrew an invitation to Ziegler to speak at the event's opening, citing his alleged links to Gaddafi. In the same period, Ziegler said that he now regarded Gaddafi as "completely mad" and as a psychopath and murderer."Swiss politico dropped from music fest over Qaddafi links" , The Local, 4 April 2011, accessed 31 May 2011.
In 1996, Ziegler signed a letter of support for Roger Garaudy. He later clarified that he intended to express "his respect for Garaudy's battle against all fundamentalisms — and Muslim fundamentalism, in particular", and that he "most firmly condemned all revisionist activity or ideas whose purpose is to deny or to minimize the genocide of the Jewish people by the Nazis".Le Monde, 23 April 1996, p. 12.
Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and South Africa During the Ethiopian famine of the mid-1980s, 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."L'AFRICA, IL DEBITO E IL RAP DIPLOMAZIA PUNK. "JUBILEE 2000" – CAMPAGNA PER LA CANCELLAZIONE DEI...", La Stampa, 27 February 2000.
Some of Ziegler's critics have accused him of working as an adviser to Ethiopian government in the drafting of Ethiopia's 1986 constitution, which established the country as a one-party state.
Ziegler defended the principle of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's land reforms in 2002, saying that Mugabe had "history and morality on his side". He described agrarian reforms as "an absolute necessity" in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and was quoted as saying:
He added that Mugabe's land reforms were being undertaken "in a despicable context", however, and said that agrarian reform under democratic conditions would bring "equitable distribution of the property titles to rural communities". He also clarified that he was speaking in a personal context, and not as a representative of the United Nations."Swiss sociologist defends Zimbabwean land reforms", Agence France-Presse, 22 August 2002.
Iraq and its wars with the United States During the buildup to the 1990 Gulf War, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein took several Swiss nationals in Iraq as hostages. Ziegler was involved in efforts to release them, initially working with former Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella and later traveling to Baghdad himself as part of an independent delegation that managed to secure the release of some hostages. The Swiss government did not endorse this effort, and Ziegler argued that his delegation could have freed all of the hostages had the government agreed to allow the export to Iraq of medicines and powdered milk for children."Italy criticises EC partners' efforts to free Gulf hostages", Reuters News, 16 October 1990; Samantha McArthur, "91 hostages freed from Iraq arrive back in Europe", Reuters News, 22 November 1990.
Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ziegler proposed that Saddam Hussein be granted a Swiss exile to prevent war from breaking out. The Swiss government did not take up this proposal."Swiss rights campaigner urges Swiss exile for Saddam", Agence France Presse, 5 February 2003; Irene Harnischberg, "U.S. military planes banned from Swiss airspace except for Iraq surveillance, aid missions", Associated Press Newswires, 21 February 2003, 11:50 am. After the invasion, Ziegler accused Coalition forces of using water and food as weapons of war in Iraqi cities under attack by insurgents, to encourage civilians to flee.