World-famous Swiss Sociologist, Lawyer, Politician, UN Rapporteur for the Right to Food, Human Rights Advocate, Jean Ziegler, passed away on 10 June 2026

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A eulogy of hope and celebration of Jean Ziegler’s life which was full with passionate work, always keeping the poor and destitute in mind, is of the order. To keep his ideas and innovation to improving the fate of the deprived thriving, Jean wrote numerous books, more than twenty in total.

One of his most famous works, “The Swiss, the Gold and the Dead”, is a scathing exposé of Switzerland’s financial and political collusion with Nazi Germany during World War II. Jean Ziegler, as a lawyer, demolishes the myth of Swiss wartime neutrality. Among the book’s core tenets is the disclosure of the laundering of gold stolen by the Nazis from central banks of occupied Europe and from Holocaust victims through the Swiss Central Bank.

His latest book, however, is like ending his life on a positive note of Hope. It is called “Où est l’espoir?” (“Where is hope?”), a plea for resistance in the face of contemporary global crises, famines, and inequalities. It is a testimony to his constant fight for justice, for freeing the world from the shackles and exploitation of an ultra-rich corporate elite. 

At the early age of 18, Jean left home and went to Paris, where he became friends with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, among others, whose company may have been crucial for his future career and understanding of humanity’s existence under a global capitalist oppression.

In April 1964, when he was 30, Jean Ziegler served as Ché Guevara’s chauffeur in Geneva, when Ché came for ten days to Switzerland for a conference on sugar at the UN. Ziegler was asked by Havana, where he was known, to drive Ché Guevara while he was in Geneva. 

After the ten days, Jean asked Ché to return with him to Cuba. Ché gave Jean crucial advice to stay in Geneva, saying, “The brain of the monster is here. This is where you must fight” — referring to the capitalist system. Ziegler promised Ché to fight the “capitalist monster”, and he fulfilled this promise throughout his life as an anti-capitalist sociologist, lawyer and politician. 

From 2000 to 2008, under UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Jean was the first UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food with a global, thematic mandate covering all countries worldwide. 

Among Jean Ziegler’s most significant achievements during his 2000–2008 mandate as UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food was establishing the right to food as a legally actionable Human Right and clarifying its normative content in international law. 

Jean contended righty that there was enough food in the world to feed everyone with plenty. It was a question of food speculation and distribution that created famines and deaths, affecting especially women and children. Jean’s unequivocal view was that every child that dies from famine is a murdered child.

With Jean Ziegler, the world lost a hero, always fighting for a world of integrity, honesty and peace.

Jean’s legacy will be marked by his tireless pursuit of justice, equality and the rights of the poor in this world.

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst, regular author for Global Research, and a former Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

Featured image: Ziegler in 2009 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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