Philip Alston

Philip Alston’s teaching focuses primarily on international law, human rights law, and international criminal law. He co-chairs the NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law.

Professor Philip Alston is the current Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. The Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the Human Rights Council. In this role, Alston conducts research and analysis to be presented in separate thematic reports to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly and undertakes country visits and reporting on the situation in those countries in relation to the concerns of the mandate.

In human rights law, Alston has held a range of senior UN appointments for well over two decades, including UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions; special adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Millennium Development Goals; and chair of the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.

In the field of international law, Alston was editor-in-chief of the European Journal of International Law from 1996 through 2007, and was previously co-editor of the Australian Yearbook of International Law. He was a co-founder of both the European Society of International Law and the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law.