Switzerland has nominated to the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) a candidate who is a vocal defender of Hezbollah, of Holocaust deniers, and of the Gaddafi regime. Tweeting about Jean Ziegler’s nomination, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power did not mince words:

.@UNWatch: Indeed. Dr. Ziegler is unfit for continued service at the @UN_HRC.

— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) August 15, 2013

Ziegler’s background is more than a little checkered:

Ziegler’s pro-Hezbollah position, his defense of the late French Holocaust-denier and Islamist Roger Garaudy and his role as co-founder of a human rights prize set up by the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi unleased sharp criticism last week from UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO monitoring the UN Human Rights Council.

Ziegler generated controversy in 2006 by telling an interviewer that he “refuse[d] to describe Hezbollah as a terrorist group.” The European Union later unanimously blacklisted Hezbollah’s “military wing” as a terrorist group.

The UNHRC has come under repeated and consistent criticism as one that allows illiberal regimes and their supporters to target the Jewish state.

[Photo: Steve Rhodes / Flickr]