Doctoral Dissertation Research: Democratic Participation in Non-Democracies? Mobilizing International Legal Regimes for National Reform in Three Monarchies

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Are there mechanisms through which non-democracies can be made more accountable to their citizens? One such mechanism may be the human rights monitoring process built into international treaties. States that ratify human rights agreements are obligated to submit reports to monitoring bodies about the steps taken to bring their domestic practices into line with the treaties. When a state submits a report, the monitoring bodies invite non-governmental organizations within the state to comment on whether the state's report is accurate. State reports and NGO feedback are periodically reviewed in a formal session, after which the monitoring body issues its own assessment of state compliance. In these ways, domestic NGOs have an opportunity to put indirect pressures on their states by providing information to the monitoring bodies on the states' compliance with human rights law. This process of citizen feedback is particularly salient in states with underdeveloped democratic institutions. This project analyzes the role of human rights treaties and their monitoring bodies in providing opportunities for domestic NGOs to pressure the state through a comparative analysis of Morocco, Jordan and Bahrain; three monarchies that offer limited opportunity for citizen participation in the legislative process but that have ratified human rights treaties that involve these monitoring processes. Reports on state compliance with treaties on rights of women and labor, and interviews with civil society activists and attention to NGOs' use of human rights monitoring to channel domestic pressure for national reform all allow evaluation of citizen feedback concerning human rights treaties. This research will discover the extent to which human rights monitoring mechanisms serve to empower citizens of states with underdeveloped democratic institutions, an issue of widespread interest. Comparative case studies allow us to explore how the international community can more effectively support citizen empowerment in aspiring democracies.