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Abstract
My objective in this thesis is to present a study of women s human rights as part of the International Human Rights Regime, through a study of the promotion of female civil servants in Thailand. The thesis project uses regime theory from the field of International Relations as an academic reference, with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) taken as the pivot of the International Women's Human Rights Regime. There are two main arguments in this thesis: first, those women s human rights form a part of the International Human Rights Regime, and second, those internationally-supervised women s human rights play an important role in the domestic affairs of Thailand.
This thesis provides an innovative study of the permeation of International Women s Human Rights norms into domestic politics. It uses a case study of the recognition of Article 7(b) of CEDAW by the Thai government with reference to the promotion of Thai female civil servants into Senior Executive levels. The case study is based on extensive fieldwork in Thailand in 2010, using documentary research, in-depth interviews, questionnaires and focus-group techniques to explore the knowledge and experience of women in the Thai civil service. The case study establishes evidence of the influence of CEDAW in the Thai civil service system. In contrast to some scholars who have argued that there is little evidence of the promotion of women s human rights in the Thai governmental structure, I present evidence of structural changes in central governmental bodies, and in laws and legal amendments to indicate that women s human rights, through compliance with CEDAW, are being promoted in the Thai state. However, my project suggests that most female civil servants have little awareness of these changes and opportunities, and that this lack of awareness forms a barrier to further progress in women s rights.
My challenge to the conventional understanding of the lack of recognition of women s human rights in Thailand puts into question, the picture of Thailand as an unreformed male-dominant state. My thesis suggests that more nuanced micro-studies of the influence of international norms on domestic politics in Thailand are needed in order to establish the progress that is being made.