Between 1990 and 1991, he was Malaysia’s Special Envoy to the United Nations and from 1995 to 2002, he was the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. Tun Musa Hitam also led the Malaysian delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights from 1993 to 1998 and was elected Chairman of the 52nd Session of the Commission in 1995.

Tun Musa Hitam obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Malaya and Masters degree in International Relations from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. He served briefly as Senior Lecturer at the University Malaya and was a Fellow at the Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University, United States of America. He is currently a Fellow of the Malaysian Institute of Management, Chairman of the Malaysia/China Business Council and Co-Chairman of the ASEAN/China Eminent Persons Group. He is also Chairman of Eminent Persons Group that is responsible to draft the ASEAN Charter and Chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum.