Chapter 2 • The Major Universal Human Rights Instruments and the Mechanisms for Their Implementation Numerous communications have been submitted under the Optional Protocol and have in some cases led to changes in domestic legislation. The implementation mechanisms of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are: l the reporting procedure (art. 40); l inter-State communications (art. 41); and l individual communications (art. 1, Optional Protocol). 2.2 The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966 The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966, and entered into force on 3 January 1976. On 8 February 2002 there were 145 States parties to the Covenant. The Covenant establishes a reporting procedure on the measures the States parties have adopted and the progress made in achieving the observance of the rights contained in the Covenant (art. 16). The United Nations Economic and Social Council is formally entrusted under the Covenant with the task of monitoring compliance by the States parties with their legal obligations incurred under the Covenant; but since 1987 this task has been carried out by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which consequently is not, strictly speaking, a treaty organ like the Human Rights Committee.29 Why are there two International Covenants? Both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were first elaborated by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and were contained in one document until it was decided, after much debate, to separate them and draft two covenants that were to be adopted simultaneously. The reason for this split was the more complex nature of economic, social and cultural rights, which required particularly careful drafting and implementation mechanisms adapted to the specific nature of those rights. In view of States’ differing levels of development, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had also to provide for the possibility of progressive implementation, although this was never intended to mean that no immediate obligations would be incurred thereunder.30 29 For more information about the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the reporting procedure, see Philip Alston, “The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”, in Manual on Human Rights Reporting, pp. 57-129. 30 For more details on the debates in this respect, see Chapter 14, subsection 2.2. Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 39