Expert Bodies’ Styles in Treating Monitoring and State Compliance

Research on the influence of international public administrations (IPAs) has so far focused on the secretariats of international organizations and their influence on policy initiation, formulation and implementation. This paper explores the role of IPAs in treaty monitoring and their influence on procedural compliance. Drawing on the research on administrative styles as well as on compliance, we describe three different monitoring styles. We compare three expert bodies, which are part of the Council of Europe’s administrative structure and tasked with monitoring member states’ compliance with different human rights treaties: the European Committee of Social Rights, the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. We analyze which monitoring style dominates the way these expert bodies interpret their mandates, define their roles in the monitoring process and shape their procedures. Then we test whether the differences in monitoring styles have an impact on states’ procedural compliance with the respective human rights treaties.