A/HRC/11/3 page 10 Committee, which will have broad capacity to set its own rules of procedure. In particular, it was noted that similar weaknesses had been commented upon when the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights first came into existence and that the African Commission had steadily increased human rights protection through its decisions, including several innovations in the relationship between the Commission and rights-holders. 31. Regional mechanisms, whether commissions or courts, are able to combine national and regional jurisprudence with international standards, to address the particular needs of their respective regions. This does not have to entail a reduction in human rights protection and can even build upon protection provided at the international level. II. HUMAN RIGHTS COURTS 32. Participants provided an overview of the operations of the Inter-American Court and the European Court. Neither the African Court nor the Inter-American Court could attend the workshop due to their respective hearings schedules. Again, the absence of these bodies from the workshop limited the extent to which their respective experience could be considered in the course of discussions. A. Mandates 33. The European Court of Human Rights has jurisdiction to hear complaints brought against any of the 47 member States of the Council of Europe. It can receive cases from individual complainants and from member States as inter-State complaints. The Court indicates interim measures, which are binding. 34. The Inter-American Court can provide advice as well as rulings in individual complaints. Its rulings address both specific reparations for the individual complainant(s) and guidelines to the relevant member State to undertake institutional or legal reforms to ensure that the violation is not repeated. In this way, the Inter-American Court is a pedagogical resource for OAS member States and addresses the root causes of human rights violations. 35. Generally, as with commissions, individuals must exhaust domestic remedies before bringing cases to any regional court. However, it was observed that this is not a condition for the submission of cases to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice or the East Africa Court. B. Independence 36. The judges of the Inter-American Court do not sit at the Court full-time. They have full-time jobs in their home countries and meet regularly four times per year for hearings, increasingly in different countries of the hemisphere at the invitation of a member State. In the Inter-American Court, the Secretariat staff are the only permanent personnel. 37. Since 1998, the judges of the European Court of Human Rights (now 47) are permanent judges, with no more than one judge elected from any member State. This arrangement was designed to enhance the independence of the Court.