Khalida Ghous

Khalida Ghous (Urdu: خالدہ غوث) is a Pakistani scholar of international relations and human rights. She is reported to be among the first in Pakistan to receive a PhD focused on human rights.

She is the former managing director of the Social Policy and Development Center, a research institute based in Karachi, Pakistan.

Ghous attended the University of Karachi and holds both an MA and PhD in international relations. She completed her PhD under the supervision of jurist Khalid M. Ishaq on the institutionalization of human rights, with particular reference to the European Court of Human Rights.^[1]

Ghous served as chairperson of the Department of International Relations at the University of Karachi from September 2003 to September 2006. She has also served as Director of the Centre of Excellence for Women's Studies at the university, and as Honorary Director of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the Pakistan Center for Democracy Studies. She has advised federal and provincial governments on gender-related policy issues. Ghous has been a member of several professional bodies and a nominee of the Sindh Government on a monitoring committee on women's empowerment. She also teaches at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.^[2]

In 2006, Ghous was one of eighteen people who sent an open letter to President Pervez Musharraf, calling on him to resign as either president or Chief of Army Staff.^[3]

She has been a delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and was invited by the European Union to deliver a talk in Brussels. Ghous has participated in Pakistan–India back-channel diplomacy as a member of the India–Pakistan Neemrana initiative.^[1]

She is the author of a book on women's rights in Islam and co-editor of Pakistan's Foreign Policy: Problems and Prospects.

Other roles include:

• Managing director, Social Policy and Development Center, Karachi.
• Professor and ex-chairman, Department of International Relations, University of Karachi.
• Ex-Director, Centre of Excellence for Women's Studies, University of Karachi.
• Ex-Editor, Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Karachi.
• Honorary Director, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
• Honorary Director, Pakistan Center for Democracy Studies.

• Delegate to the General Assembly of World University Service, Lima, Peru, 1988.
• Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Fellowship, July 1992.
• Participant, Salzburg Seminar on Transnational Law and Human Rights, 12–24 July 1992, Salzburg, Austria.
• Visitor to the United States under the International Visitor's Programme on Conflict Resolution: Tensions in South Asia, 10 October – 8 November 1992.
• Asia–Pacific representative in the International World University Service Delegation at the 50th and 51st sessions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 20–27 February 1994 and February 1995, Geneva.
• Asia Fellow, Henry L. Stimson Center, Washington, D.C., 1 June – 30 July 1999.

• Ghous, Khalida (2005). Trafficking of Women and Children in South Asia and Within Pakistan. New York: Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA).^[4]
• Ghous, Khalida (2002). Female Home-Based Workers: The Silent Workforce. Karachi: Centre of Excellence for Women's Studies, University of Karachi.
• Ahmed, M., and Ghous, K. (eds.) (1999). Pakistan: Prospects and Perspectives. Karachi: Royal Book Company.^[5]

• Social Policy and Development Center
• Henry L. Stimson Center
• An interview with the Financial Post
• Important role in Indo-Pak track II diplomacy
• Voice of America takes her comments
• The Pioneer editorial
• President of Pakistan's website
• Dawn Pakistan's largest English daily praises Dr. Khalida in an Editorial
• International Conference
• Activism