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

有没有机制可以让非民主国家对其公民更负责？其中一种机制可能是纳入国际条约的人权监测程序。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，监督机构邀请该州内的非政府组织就该州的报告是否准确发表意见。在正式会议上定期审查国家报告和非政府组织的反馈，之后监测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向监测机构提供关于各州遵守人权法情况的信息，从而间接向各州施加压力。这一公民反馈过程在民主制度不发达的州尤为突出。该项目通过对摩洛哥、约旦和巴林的比较分析，分析了人权条约及其监督机构在为国内非政府组织向国家施压方面的作用；这三个君主制国家公民参与立法进程的机会有限，但批准了涉及这些监督进程的人权条约。关于国家遵守妇女和劳工权利条约的报告、对民间社会活动家的访谈以及对非政府组织利用人权监测来引导国内要求国家改革的压力的关注，都可以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，这是一个普遍感兴趣的问题。比较案例研究使我们能够探讨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.