A/HRC/39/58 open cases, cannot keep pace with the annual increase in the number of petitions and thus cannot meet the reasonable expectations of States and victims for their prompt resolution. The Commission receives an average of over 2,000 new petitions each year. 20. Membership issues also hinder both the Inter-American Commission and the Court. As of 2013, 25 of the 35 OAS member States had ratified the Convention, while 2 have subsequently denounced it, leaving 23 active parties. Only 21 of those parties have acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Court in contentious cases. Notably, the United States of America and Canada have not ratified the American Convention on Human Rights, although the United States remains the largest donor of voluntary funds to the Commission, despite the fact that it has not signed the Convention. It contributes $2.3 million a year and an additional $300,000 to the Special Rapporteur for freedom of expression. Very few OAS member States contribute voluntary funding to the Commission and the Court.26 In 2016, when the Commission faced its most serious financial crisis, OHCHR was crucial in calling attention to the problem. Among the challenges facing the Arab Human Rights Committee are the delayed submissions by States parties of their first and periodic reports on the implementation of the Arab Charter on Human Rights and the effective implementation of the Committee’s recommendations at the national level. Furthermore, eight LAS member States have still not ratified the Charter and are therefore not yet members of the Committee. 21. The African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights also faces many structural and resource challenges. Among them are a lack of capacity to ensure that the system is accessible to rights holders and that norms and standards are effectively implemented and enhanced at the national level; to monitor the non-compliance of member States with their obligation to submit regular reports; to overcome challenges in implementing the decisions of the Commission; and a very limited operating budget. For example, in 2002/2003, the Commission only had a budget of $790,000, although this was subsequently increased to around $7.9 million in 2011. 27 As with OAS, fiscal challenges are compounded by membership problems. As of July 2017, only 8 of the 30 States parties to the Protocol to the Charter had made the declaration recognizing the competence of the Court to receive cases from NGOs and individuals. They are Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Tunisia and the United Republic of Tanzania. 28 Moreover, only 26 States have accepted the jurisdiction of the Court. In its response to the survey, the Government of Kenya noted a lack of political will to implement the decisions of the Court and a lack of adequate funding as the main obstacles. 22. Although it boasts the best-funded regional arrangement in the world, Europe also has a problem with structural imbalances. Within the European system, the Convention makes provision for civil and political rights only, while the European Social Charter covers social and economic rights. The two are not treated equally: while accession to the Convention is a condition of Council of Europe membership, it is not a requirement for the Charter, underlining the lesser status accorded to social and economic rights in the European system.29 Ironically, the most critical problem appears to be the mounting number of individual complaints. A combination of factors - the positive public reputation of the Court in some countries, its expansive interpretation of the Convention and entrenched human rights problems in other countries - has attracted tens of thousands of new individual applications annually. Such cases often last for years, resulting in a mounting backlog. As of September 2016, the Court had issued more than 10,000 judgments but had more than 74,000 pending cases. Some say the Court is becoming a victim of its own success and now 26 27 28 29 Survey response by the Government of the United States. See Frans Viljoen, International Human Rights Law in Africa, 2nd ed. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012). The following 30 member States have ratified the Protocol: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. See Anna Greer and Louis J. Kotzé, eds., Research Handbook on Human Rights and the Environment (Cheltenham, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015). 9