Chapter 2 | Page 83 States are required to report on ‘factors and difficulties’ and to exchange information with other States as a basis for seeking international assistance.191 However, the quality of State reporting on the ICESCR suffers from a number of deficiencies, including incompleteness, failure to address material issues and inappropriate or inadequate data.192 In the absence of a formal mechanism of complaints in relation to the rights recognised in the ICESCR, the need for an Optional Protocol was discussed by the ESCR Committee for some time. A report on a draft optional protocol was submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights at the conclusion of the Committee’s considerations at its 15th session.193 The process of finalising and adopting the Optional Protocol, however, proved difficult, despite the commitments made in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.194 With the new mandate granted to the working group by the Human Rights Council in 2006, the draft was finalised and submitted to the Human Rights Council in 2008 and was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10th December 2008. The Optional Protocol was opened for signature and ratification or accession on 24 September 2009 and, pursuant to Article 18(1), was to enter into force three months after the deposit of the 10th instrument of ratification.195 As of August 2015, the Optional Protocol had been ratified by 21 States.196 191 CESCR General Comment No 1, E/1989/22, above n 187, [3] [7] [8] [9]. 192 Eibe Riedel, Gilles Giacca and Christophe Golay, 'The Development of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in International Law' in Eibe Riedel, Gilles Giacca and Christophe Golay (eds), Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in International Law: Contemporary Issues and Challenges (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014) 3-48, 23. 193 Economic and Social Council, Report of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to the Commission on Human Rights on a draft optional protocol for the consideration of communications in relation to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 53rd sess, Agenda Item 14, UN Doc E/CN.4/1997/105 (18 December 1996). 194 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, A/CONF.157/23, above n 30, [75]. 195 Uruguay became the tenth state to ratify (on 5 February 2013) and the Optional Protocol entered into force on 5 May 2013. 196 The States parties to the ICESCR-OP are: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cabo Verde, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Gabon, Italy, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Montenegro, Niger, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Spain, and Uruguay. See, United Nations, United Nations Treaty Collection: Chapter IV Human Rights- Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural