Philip Alston

Philip Alston "is an international lawyer whose research and teaching interests focus primarily on Human Rights Law and the Law of International Organizations. In 2004 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights appointed him Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. In 2005 he was elected to chair the Annual Meeting of U.N. Human Rights Special Procedures, which brings together all of the Special Rapporteurs, Working Groups, Special Representatives and Independent Experts working on human rights in the U.N. system (almost 50 in total). In 2005-06 he will chair the Coordinating Committee set up to enhance and promote coordination among these different mechanisms.

"He has also been the Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of International Law since 1996.

"Born and educated in Australia (Law and Economics) and California (JSD), Alston taught during the 1980s at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and at Harvard Law School. He then became Professor of Law and Foundation Director of the Centre for International and Public Law at the Australian National University, a post he held until 1995. From 1996 to 2001 he was Professor of International Law, and for part of that time Head of Department, at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy. He was also co-Director of the Academy of European Law and organized the Academy's summer programs in human rights law. Other posts he has held include chief of staff to a Cabinet Minister in Australia during part of the Whitlam Government, and Discrimination Commissioner for the Australian Capital Territory ( Canberra) for three years...

"He has also worked extensively with the non-governmental sector. He worked with the Anti-Slavery Society in London in the late 1970s, was an adviser on human rights and development issues to the International Commission of Jurists in the early 1980s, was the only lawyer on the founding Board of Physicians for Human Rights in the late 1980s, and is currently the President of the Board of the Center for Economic and Social Rights...

"In 2002 he was appointed by the late Sergio Vieira di Mello as Special Adviser to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and his representative on the Millennium Project Task Force on Poverty and Economic Development, chaired by Professor Jeffrey Sachs."


 * Director, Center for Economic and Social Rights
 * Director, Fund for Global Human Rights
 * Advisory Council, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative
 * Advisory Council, Interights
 * Advisory Board, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions
 * Former Council Member, International Council on Human Rights Policy
 * Editorial Advisor, Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice
 * International Advisory Board, MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice
 * Special Mandate Holder, United Nations Human Rights Commission
 * Editorial Review Board, Human Rights Quarterly

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 * Frederic Megret