A/HRC/43/31 cent increase. The universal ratification of all the treaties and optional protocols, including declarations, would entail 4,925 ratifications (ibid., para.17). 96. The number of reports pending review decreased from 258 in December 2015 to 230 in December 2017, representing an 11 per cent decrease. 97. Concerning individual communications, the number of communications pending review rose from 769 in 2015 to 977 in 2017, representing a 28 per cent increase. In terms of meeting workload targets for individual communications, the eight treaty bodies that review individual communications adopted final decisions on a yearly average of 197 communications from 2015 to 2017 over a period of 6.3 weeks. This represents 31 communications per week, thereby exceeding the target of 23 by more than a third (ibid., paras. 25–26). XI. Achievements of and obstacles to technical assistance 98. In its contribution, Association nationale de promotion et de protection des droits de l’homme (Cameroon) stressed that technical assistance as proposed today suffers from a number of shortcomings that undermine its impact: firstly, because technical assistance does not take into account the specificities and priority needs of the States concerned; secondly, it does not provide tools in the field of prevention of human rights violations; and thirdly, it does not participate in a tangible way to improvements in the human rights legal framework. 99. The non-governmental organization added that the recommendations made in the context of the universal periodic review were not always implemented in the States concerned, and that many States did not contribute to United Nations voluntary funds for technical assistance. 100. In a recent paper, a researcher at the University of Birmingham argues that evidence of whether technical assistance or capacity-building is effective is limited. Little effort is actually made to monitor and evaluate such programmes and methodologies by measuring their outcomes. In addition, the time lag between the implementation of technical assistance and the emergence of any measurable impact further complicates the assessment of its effectiveness.4 XII. Best practices in technical assistance and capacity-building 101. Within the framework of technical assistance, it has been suggested that the experience-based wisdom embedded in various model laws and treaties in technical fields should be mobilized. The Model Convention on Extradition 5 demonstrates the probable contribution of accumulated expertise in a particular field to the promotion and protection of human rights. The Model Convention in fact incorporates the principles of exception of political offenders and non-refoulement. 102. One of the main conclusions of the Board of Trustees of the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights and the voluntary fund for financial and technical assistance in the implementation of the universal periodic review is that, in States where the presence of OHCHR is particularly well established with acceptable human resources and expertise and the capacity to adequately and independently monitor the human rights complexities on the ground, the technical cooperation programmes developed at the request and in close cooperation with relevant State entities and other United Nations partners are often robust and provide visible and measurable results (A/HRC/26/51, para. 40). 103. Since the launch of the universal periodic review process in 2008, the voluntary fund for participation in the universal periodic review, established by the Human Rights Council its resolutions 5/1 and 6/17, has been instrumental in ensuring the presence of many 4 5 Zenobia Ismail, “Technical Assistance and Capacity Building in International Development”, University of Birmingham, 6 June 2019, p. 4. General Assembly resolution 45/116, annex. 15