Resources - Wednesday, March 26, 2008 13:48 - 0 Comments

UN Elects Khaddafi Prize Founder to Expert Post???

UN Human rights expert Jean Ziegler
in Eritrea, 1976

To the sound of cheers, and by an overwhelming majority of 40 out of 47 votes, the UN Human Rights Council today elected Jean Ziegler, the co-founder of the “Muammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize,” as an expert adviser representing the Western world. And for its new Palestine expert, the council chose Richard Falk, who, like Ziegler, accuses the U.S. of being responsible for many of the world’s ills and describes Israel in Nazi terminology.

“Even within the benighted UN Human Rights council, today was a dark day for human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights monitoring agency. “The very credibility of the UN human rights system is now at stake.”

Falk was approved by consensus. Canada afterward made a statement dissociating itself from the choice. The U.S., a non–voting observer, also took the floor to criticize Falk’s published writings.
Ziegler, criticized by many for his performance as former UN expert on the right to food, earned more votes than any of the other candidates.

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