Swiss expert Jean Ziegler, head of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee to investigate hedge funds

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Vulture funds 'undermine development, make workers suffer' - UN Advisory Committee head

Swiss expert Jean Ziegler, head of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee to investigate hedge funds.

The head of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee to investigate US hedge funds that took Argentina to court, Swiss expert Jean Ziegler, said that the speculative funds “undermine development (of debtor countries) and make workers suffer.”

“(Hedge funds) affect social and cultural rights in a direct or indirect way,” stated Ziegler during an interview with Página/12 newspaper.

The expert appointed by the Human Rights Council to head the committee that will draft a report on the consequences of the actions of vulture funds on human rights praised the creation of the Advisory Committee. He pointed out that it is the first time that the action of global hedge funds “will be studied not only from a financial point of view, where the United States weighs upon, but from a Human Rights viewpoint.”

Ziegler said that hedge funds are not “isolated speculators”, he accused them of being a creation of “financial oligarchies” and aimed at great international banking like Holdman Sachs and Swiss Banks Union.

The expert spoke about the Argentine ongoing legal battle against vulture funds and said that if the government “paid in full as vultures want, it would entail cuts in public spendings” causing “the people to suffer.”