Philip G. Alston is an 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. In human rights law, Alston has held a range of senior UN appointments for over two decades, including United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, a position he held from August 2004 to July 2010.

Alston graduated from the University of Melbourne and from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

His brother is the former Australian federal Cabinet minister and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Richard Alston.

Alston's first academic appointments were at Tufts University (1985–89) and Harvard Law School (1984–89). Alston was then Professor at the Australian National University (1990–95), and also director of its Center for International and Public Law. He was then Professor at the European University Institute (1996–2001), before moving to New York University School of Law, where is the John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law.

Rajiva Wijesinha, MA, DPhil (Sinhala: රජීව විජේසිoහ) (born May 16, 1954) is a Sri Lankan writer in English, distinguished for his political analysis as well as creative and critical work. An academic by profession for much of his working career, he was most recently Senior Professor of Languages at the University of Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka.

In June 2007 President Mahinda Rajapakse appointed him Secretary-General of the Sri Lankan Government Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), and in June 2008 he also became concurrently the Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights (Sri Lanka). The Peace Secretariat wound up in July 2009), and in February 2010 he resigned from the Ministry as well as the University, and became a Member of Parliament on the National List of the United People's Freedom Alliance following the General Election held in April 2010, following which he was appointed a Member of Parliament.

He belongs to the Liberal Party of Sri Lanka, and has served as its President and Leader, and also as a Vice-President of Liberal International. He is currently Chair of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats and was re-elected leader of the Liberal Party Sri Lanka on the proposal of the previous leader following the Liberal Party Annual Congress of 2011. He has travelled widely, including as a Visiting Professor on the Semester at Sea Programme of the University of Pittsburgh, and has published Beyond the First Circle: Travels in the Second and Third Worlds.