Chapter 2 • The Major Universal Human Rights Instruments and the Mechanisms for Their Implementation 2.5.3 The implementation mechanism The Convention created the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which consists of eighteen members serving in their personal capacity (art. 8) and has the task of monitoring the implementation of the terms of the Convention. Like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination has a three-pronged implementation mechanism consisting of periodic reports, inter-State communications and communications from individuals, which will be briefly described below. Furthermore, the Committee adopts, when necessary, General Recommendations concerning specific articles or issues of special interest. Below is a general description of the monitoring mechanisms: v the reporting procedure: the States parties undertake to submit, within one year of the entry into force of the Convention for the State concerned, an initial report, and, thereafter, every two years or whenever the Committee so requests, a report on the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures taken to give effect to the provisions of the Convention (art. 9(1)). Like the other Committees, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has adopted special guidelines on the form and contents of the reports submitted by the States parties; v inter-State complaints: any State party which considers that another State party is not giving effect to the provisions of the Convention “may bring the matter to the attention of the Committee” (art. 11(1)). Unlike the case of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, no special declaration is needed to recognize this competence of the Committee to receive inter-State communications; the Committee will however only deal with the matter if it has not first been settled to the satisfaction of both parties. Where the Committee is seized of the case, the Convention foresees the appointment of an ad hoc Conciliation Commission, which shall make its good offices “available to the States concerned with a view to an amicable solution of the matter on the basis of respect for” the Convention (art. 12(1)(a)). When the Commission has considered the matter, it shall submit to the Chairman of the Committee “a report embodying its findings on all questions of fact relevant to the issue between the parties and containing such recommendations as it may think proper for the amicable solution of the dispute” (art. 13(1)). The States parties can accept or reject the recommendations of the Conciliation Commission (art. 13(2)); v individual communications: a State party may also at any time declare that it considers the Committee competent “to receive and consider communications from individuals or groups of individuals within its jurisdiction claiming to be victims of a violation by that State Party of any of the rights set forth in this Convention” (art. 14(1)). Article 14 entered into force on 3 December 1982, and, as of 17 August 2001, 34 of the States parties had made such a declaration.57 57 UN doc. GAOR, A/56/18, p. 10, para. 2. Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 53