Prof Dato Dr Rahmat Mohamad took office as the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Industry, Community and Alumni on 15 November 2018. Prior to this recent appointment he was the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia and this deanship was preceded by the prestigious appointment he held as Secretary General of the Asian African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) for two terms, from 2008 till 2016.

AALCO is an inter-governmental organization with 47 countries from Asia and Africa being members of the organization with its headquarters in New Delhi, India. As Secretary General he headed numerous diplomatic meetings on behalf of AALCO and mainly concerning progressive development of international law. In addition, at the annual meeting of AALCO and International Law Commission (ILC) and the Sixth Committee of the United Nations, he presented the views of Member States of AALCO on many international law issues namely, law of the sea, international criminal law, world trade, cyberspace and violent extremism. As the Chief Executive Officer of the organization he had successfully revitalized AALCO as an important and relevant regional organization that serves the needs of Member States and managed to recover AALCO from severe financial crisis in 2008.

Apart from his diplomatic role, he delivered numerous lectures in many universities around the world and held various academic positions. He has written numerous articles, papers, reports, book chapters and books on diverse topics on public international law. In 2016, he represented Malaysia in the Preparatory Committee Meetings in the United Nations on the draft text of an international legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction (BBNJ) under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) or BBNJ and was nominated by the government of Malaysia as Malaysia’s candidate in the 2016 election of the International Law Commission (ILC).

He has been appointed by the State of Johor as the Counsel Watching Brief for State Government of Johor in the application for revision of Batu Puteh/Pedra Branca’s case of 2008 before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. In recognition of his valuable contribution in revitalizing AALCO, in 2016, he was appointed as a member of Eminent Person Group (EPG) of AALCO.