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

是否存在使非民主国家对其公民更负责任的机制？其中一种机制可能是纳入国际条约的人权监测进程。批准人权协定的国家有义务向监测机构提交报告，说明为使其国内做法符合条约而采取的步骤。当一个州提交报告时，监测机构会邀请该州的非政府组织对该州的报告是否准确发表评论。国家报告和非政府组织的反馈定期在正式会议上审议，之后监督机构发布自己对国家遵守情况的评估。通过这些方式，国内非政府组织有机会通过向监督机构提供有关国家遵守人权法情况的信息，对其国家施加间接压力。这种公民反馈的过程在民主制度不发达的国家尤为突出。本项目通过对摩洛哥、约旦和巴林的比较分析，分析人权条约及其监测机构在为国内非政府组织向国家施压提供机会方面的作用；这三个君主国为公民参与立法程序提供的机会有限，但已经批准了涉及这些监督程序的人权条约。有关国家遵守妇女和劳工权利条约的报告、对公民社会活动人士的访谈以及对非政府组织利用人权监测来引导国内压力、要求国家改革的关注，都允许对公民对人权条约的反馈进行评估。这项研究将发现人权监督机制在多大程度上有助于赋予民主制度不发达国家的公民权力，这是一个广泛关注的问题。比较案例研究使我们能够探索国际社会如何能够更有效地支持有抱负的民主国家的公民赋权。

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.