Philip G. Alston is a prominent international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and co-Chair of the law school`s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.[1]

In human rights law, Alston has held a range of senior UN appointments for well over two decades. Since 2004 he has been the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

`The problem with the United States is that it is making an increased use of drones/Predators (which are) particularly prominently used now in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan,` UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston told a press conference.

`My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law,` he said.

NAIROBI, Oct. 15 -- A top U.N. human rights investigator on Thursday blasted a U.N.-backed Congolese military operation targeting rebels in eastern Congo, calling its results `catastrophic.`

`Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, thousands raped, hundreds of villages burnt to the ground and at least 1,000 civilians killed,` Philip Alston, the United Nations` special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said in a statement. `In many areas, it is [Congolese soldiers] themselves who pose the greatest direct risk to security

The UN Rapporteur on executions Philip Alston, speaking to reporters at the UN, said that the Sri Lankan government has an issue with credibility and raised doubts over the outcome of a probe on human rights to be carried out by a panel appointed by the government.

In response to a question on self-investigations , he said that military investigations of allegations against their own activities did not enhance credibility. On one allegation, accompanied by a video, that the Sri Lankan military had conducted summary executions, the Sri Lankan Government had declared the video to be a fabrication based on what it called expert advice .

Two of those experts had been from the military, Mr. Alston noted. In addition that Government already had credibility issues due to its abandonment of an inquiry by independent investigators, on prior allegations, when those investigators had resigned, claiming that the investigation was not serious. Mr. Alston was initiating his own analyses of the tape. (UN)