Jean Ziegler (born April 19, 1934) is a writer and former professor of
sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris. He is one of the most influential Swiss intellectuals of the last 5 decades and a well known political writer, mainly amongst intellectuals and left wing activists in Europe, Africa, and South America. He was a member of Parliament for the Socialist Party (PS) in the Federal parliament of Switzerland from 1981 to 1999. He has also held several positions with the United Nations, especially as Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000 to 2008,and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council since 2009. Jean Ziegler has authored numerous works, is a lecturer, and is well known for this sentence: « A child who dies from hunger is a murdered child. » His books have been translated in many languages and sold all over the world.