"[4] 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.

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."

[10] 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).

"[16] 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 "Tripoli's influence would not be felt.

"[17] Gaddafi Prize officials announced thirteen disparate winners in 2002, including Ziegler and the French philosopher and convicted Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.

[20] 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).

[22] On 25 March 2011, the Swiss television channel Schweizer Fernsehen ran a report on Ziegler's alleged associations with Gaddafi.

[23] 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.

[26] Some of 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.

[28] Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ziegler proposed that Saddam Hussein be granted a Swiss exile to prevent war from breaking out.

[29] 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.

[32] 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.

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.

"[35] In 2005, Ziegler likened Gaza to "an immense concentration camp", adding that he was glad the "guards" were about to leave (this was a reference to Israel's unilateral disengagement plan under Ariel Sharon's government).

[36] Ziegler had several interactions with the government of North Korea while serving as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

[37] In April 2004, a writer in the Asian Wall Street Journal called on North Korea to accept Ziegler's repeated requests for a visit, and to help establish an accountable network for food aid.

This group criticized Ziegler for his associations with figures such as Mengistu Haile Mariam and Robert Mugabe, his involvement with the Gaddafi Prize, and his support for Roger Garaudy.

[40] 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.

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.