A/HRC/34/23 present a draft progress report in February 2017, at the Committee’s eighteenth session. The drafting group had drawn up a questionnaire to seek the views and input of Member States, relevant international and regional organizations, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant special procedures, national human rights institutions and NGOs. 17. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights indicated that, since 2013, it had made formal submissions for the universal periodic review of 23 of the 28 States members of the European Union. D. Other cooperation initiatives 18. A representative of OHCHR indicated that the Office had filed amicus briefs and provided expert opinions before the European Court of Human Rights and the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights. 19. A representative of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights indicated that the Agency had produced reports, opinions and handbooks on United Nations standards. 20. A workshop participant from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights provided concrete examples of jurisprudence and cases containing references to the European Court of Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. 21. In accordance with a memorandum of understanding between the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, judges from each Court conducted study visits to the other. 22. The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights stressed that learning from one another was crucial to the development of international dialogue on jurisprudence. 23. Representatives of African regional human rights mechanisms noted that their key challenges included the small number of ratifications of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the small number of States that had made declarations under article 34 (6) of the Protocol accepting the competence of the Court to hear cases brought before it by individuals and NGOs. The absence of a clear human rights mandate for the East African Court of Justice was also noted. 24. In June 2016, the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights’ had received members of the European Court of Human Rights, who had shared knowledge from their jurisdiction on new information and communication technologies. In November 2015, it had organized a judicial conference in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, that had brought together representatives of national, regional and subregional courts in Africa, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights to discuss harmonizing the application and interpretation of international human rights norms. 25. A representative of the Council of Europe indicated that the Council cooperated actively with the United Nations — for instance, by holding annual inter-secretariat meetings, issuing biannual resolutions regarding cooperation with the United Nations, organizing regular exchanges of information on thematic issues, making contributions to the universal periodic review of its member States, offering joint training courses with representatives of United Nations agencies and maintaining a permanent delegation to the United Nations Office at Geneva. 5