UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies and Group Agency

本项目调查联合国（UN）人权条约机构——负责监督核心国际人权公约执行情况的专家机构——如何成为机构。人权条约机构是令人吃惊的生物：从表面上看，它们是一个软弱的机构，长期资金不足，缺乏任何硬实力资源来制裁不履行公约义务的签署国。此外，虽然它们的专家成员应该以个人身份行事，但他们依靠签署国重新选举，因此并不总是完全独立的。最后，条约机构是由在许多方面彼此不同但形式上也是平等的成员组成的，这意味着尽管它们存在差异，但它们必须就如何作出所有成员都能接受的决定达成协议。然而，尽管存在这些不利条件，随着时间的推移，条约机构已经获得了代理权：它们被公约签署国赋予了额外的权限，它们采用了面向内部的自我合法化策略来获得自主权。尽管联合国人权条约机构在全球人权制度中的作用得到提升，但我们对条约机构如何以及为何获得代理知之甚少。为了填补这一空白，该项目追求两个目标：首先，该项目将解释人权条约机构能力的演变，并测试关于成员国偏好和模板扩散的假设。其次，该项目将调查条约机构如何采用以内部为导向的自我合法化策略（如承诺公平程序和与表面上合法的行为者和机构建立联系）来获得自主权。

This project investigates how the United Nations (UN) human rights treaty bodies – expert bodies tasked with monitoring the implementation of the core international human rights conventions – gain agency. The human rights treaty bodies are astonishing creatures: On the face of it, they are weak bodies that are chronically under-financed and lack any hard power resources to sanction signatory states that do not comply with their convention obligations. Moreover, although their expert members are supposed to act in their personal capacity, they depend on the signatory states for re-election and are therefore not always fully independent. Finally, the treaty bodies are composed of members who differ from each other in many ways but are also formally equal, which means that they have, in spite of their differences, to come to an agreement on how decisions are to be taken that is acceptable to all members. Yet, despite these unfavorable conditions, the treaty bodies have over time gained agency: They have been given additional competences by the conventions’ signatory states and they have employed inward-oriented self-legitimation strategies to gain autonomy. Despite the UN human rights treaty bodies’ elevated role in the global human rights regime, we know little about how and why the treaty bodies have gained agency. To fill this gap, the project pursues two objectives: First, the project will explain the evolution of the human rights treaty bodies’ competences and test hypotheses on member state preferences and the diffusion of templates. Second, the project will investigate how the treaty bodies employ inward-oriented self-legitimation strategies (such as commitment to fair procedures and association with ostensibly legitimate actors and institutions) to gain autonomy.