A/HRC/6/21 page 12 Amendments enter into force upon approval by the General Assembly and the deposits with the Secretary-General of instruments of acceptance by a two-thirds majority of the States parties in accordance with their respective constitutional processes. Amendments are binding only on those States parties which have accepted them. Upon entry into force, those States parties that had not deposited instruments of acceptance with the Secretary-General would remain bound by the provisions of the Covenant in its original form and by any earlier amendment which they have accepted. 10. Following the entry into force of the amendment, any State that subsequently becomes a party to the Covenant will be considered to become party to the Covenant as amended, unless such State expresses a different intention.3 In addition, a provision would need to be included to address the situation of States becoming party to the Covenant between the time that the amendment, following its adoption, is circulated for approval and the time that it enters into force. 11. Upon the entry into force of an amendment that establishes a new treaty body, and provided that no additional substantive obligations for States parties to the Covenant are created by the amendment, ECOSOC could, by resolution, delegate its duties under the Covenant to the new treaty body for those States parties that have not yet accepted the amendment. Following entry into force of the amendment, those States parties having accepted the amendment would report directly to the new treaty body. 12. The amendment of the Covenant to include provisions creating a treaty body to monitor implementation would be a cumbersome process (the period of time it would take for States parties to accept the amendment, double-regimes within the same treaty after entry into force and before all States parties accepted the amendment, etc.) and its application would be somewhat awkward given the different avenues of reporting. Adoption of a protocol 13. A second option to establish a new treaty body to monitor the implementation of the Covenant would be to adopt a new protocol open to States parties to the Covenant. A conference of States parties to the Covenant would be convened to negotiate and adopt the Protocol establishing the treaty body, by approval of a majority of the States parties present and voting at the conference. 14. The text of a new protocol would reference the substantive terms of the Covenant, and then create the new committee and describe its mandate and functions. The Secretary-General would be named as depositary to the protocol. 15. The new protocol could be drafted to enter into force either after a certain number or a certain percentage of States parties to the Covenant have ratified it in accordance with their domestic procedures and deposited instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval, accession or consent to be bound with the Secretary-General. To match the amendment provisions in the 3 See article 40, paragraph 5, of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969.