ASSOCIATE PROF. ZURAIDA RASTAM SHAHROM

Associate Professor Zuraida Rastam Shahrom began her legal career as a Magistrate in the Klang Sessions and Magistrate court where she presided over civil and criminal matters. She also presided over juvenile matters in the Court for Children. After serving as a Magistrate for 7 years she was then promoted to the position of Senior Federal Counsel with the Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia. In the Attorney General's Chambers she headed the Human Rights and International Organisations Unit which provided advisory services to the Government of Malaysia on various legal issues in general and specifically on issues relating to human rights and international organisations.

 Her major accomplishments during her 10 years of service with the Attorney General's Chambers are as follows:

- Attorney General's Chambers representative to the United Nations Legal Committee meetings in New York for years 2002, 2004 and 2006. During these meetings she was involved in the multilateral negotiation of the Optional Protocol to United Nations Convention on the Safety of the United Nations Personnel which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005.

- Attorney General's Chambers representative to the United Nations Commission of Human Rights and the Human Rights Council meetings where she presented Malaysia's initiatives to promote and protect human rights in Malaysia.

- Participation in Malaysia's reporting before the United Nations Compliance Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2008 to present the legal initiatives taken by Malaysia to ensure Malaysia's compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee concluded that Malaysia has satisfactorily complied with the Convention and encourages Malaysia to uplift the reservations that it has made to certain provisions of the Convention.

- Attorney General's Chambers representative to the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCPIL) in Australia where she presented a paper on Malaysia's legal position in relation to cross-border family, child protection and legal cooperation under the HCPIL Conventions.

- Together with the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development drafted Malaysia's country report on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which was presented to the CEDAW Committee and CRC Committee

During her period of private practice she handled civil litigation cases and as Head of Advisory in the the Securities Commission, together with her team of officers initiated various enforcement actions in the form of administrative actions against capital market intermediaries that breached provisions of the securities law.  Details of the administrative actions taken and sanctions imposed on the breaching parties are available on the Securities Commission's website and Annual Reports for years 2013 - 2016. Her Masters in Law research was in the area of traditional knowledge and access and benefit sharing under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Her current research interest is in the area of sustainable finance and she holds the Faculty Research Grant researching in the area of sustainable banking regulatory framework in Malaysia.