States’ Compliance to International Treaties - Accountability Mechanisms Pertaining to States, IOs and NGOs

This research analyzes mechanisms fostering states' compliance to international treaties. It argues that a treaty accountability network surrounds states when they commit to an international covenant and that actors belonging to the network have leverage on states to hold them accountable. This study is particularly interested in the role NGOs and IOs play as actors within this network. It identifies two main ways for holding states accountable: direct and indirect.
Indirect accountability is conceptualized as mechanisms where aid recipients are empowered by organizations and will henceforth hold their states accountable. This research provides a small-N case-study on the UNCRC, maps the treaty accountability network surrounding it, identifies accountability mechanisms developed by one IO (UNICEF) and one NGO (Terre des Hommes Suisse) and examines pathways used by one state (Switzerland).
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