DISINFORMATION IN THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ON ALFRED DE ZAYAS

Someone has brought to my attention that a new section “controversies” has been added to the entry on “Alfred de Zayas”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred-Maurice_de_Zayas

Of course, there are controversies, since throughout my career I have broken quite a few taboos and intend to continue pointing my finger at fake news, fake history, fake law, fake diplomacy and fake democracy. Hitherto I have endured the spectrum of insults from the extreme right and the extreme left. It comes with the job of being an independent expert. Yet, I do not underestimate the power of disinformation and know well that ad hominemattacks are intended to diminish the credibility of my work and of my reports to the Human Rights Council and General Assembly. As they say, calumniare audacter, semper aliquid haeret. Always something sticks.

Those of you familiar with the publications of UN Watch know that it is a lobby that specializes on insulting persons who do not toe the line of the United States and Israeli governments. Among the targets have been UN High Commissioners Mary Robinson, Louise Arbour, Navi Pillay, UN rapporteurs John Dugard, William Schabas, Richard Goldstone, Michael Lynk, Olivier de Schutter, Jean Ziegler, Idriss Jazairy, to name but a few. Invariably the attacks are below the belt and based on conjecture, extrapolation or taking words or sentences out of context. Again and again UN Watch has been refuted, but, as I just said, always something sticks.

As to the allegations against me in an infamous 2012 article, I have written so much on the Nuremberg Trials, that it is almost surrealistic to pretend that that is my opinion, although, of course, as many other lawyers and historians have done before me, I am critical of numerous aspects of the Nuremberg Trials. Suffice it to say that Benjamin Ferencz, a Nuremberg prosecutor, reviewed two of my books very positively for the American Journal of International Law. Anyone who wants to know my views on Nuremberg can find them in my books and articles.As to my report on Venezuela, http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/39/47/Add.1

It is almost surrealistic to say that all I did was to go to the supermarket across from my hotel. Those who read my report will see that I saw the spectrum of interlocutors from the opposition, National Assembly, Chamber of Commerce, Churches and non-governmental organizations. Annex I to the report reflects my meetings with victims on all sides. I take credit for the release of 80 detainees in December 2017 and more in the course of 2018 and 2019, including the German journalist Billy Six.

Some of you may want to go on the “talk” page of the wikipedia article on Alfred de Zayas and express your opinion on the controversy over the controversies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Alfred-Maurice_de_Zayas

sursum corda!