The Special Rapporteur on water and sanitation, the Special Rapporteur on the right to education and treaty bodies have stressed that states, as part of their obligation to take steps, should adopt a national strategy, based on human rights principles, that defines state objectives and sets out policies and corresponding benchmarks.103 The CESCR has stated that the national strategy should identify the resources available to meet objectives and the most cost-effective way of using these resources.104 The obligation to ensure minimum core obligations The notion of ‘minimum core obligations’ refers to states’ obligation to meet minimum and essential economic, social and cultural rights levels.105 Treaty bodies, in particular the CESCR, have defined minimum core obligations in detail.106 In fact, over the years, in its General Comments, the Committee has regularly included references to the substantive examined rights’ minimum core obligations.107 Special procedures also refer often to rights’ minimum core content.108 Treaty bodies and special procedures have regularly repeated that a state cannot justify noncompliance with core obligations that are immediate obligations and remain in place even in times of conflict, emergency and natural disaster109 or economic crisis.110 States have the positive obligation to mobilise resources from those living within their borders and, where necessary, the international community in order to satisfy these minimum core obligations.111 103 UNGA, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque’ (2011) UN Doc A/66/255; UNHRC, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on education, Kishore Singh’ (2011) UN Doc A/66/269. See also Limburg Principle 23, Limburg Principles on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1987), UN Doc E/CN.4/1987/17, Annex, reprinted in 9 HuM.RS.Q (1987) 122; Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, The Nature of Obligations under the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (Intersentia 2003). 104 CESCR, General Comment No 12, para 21; CESCR, General Comment No 14, para 53. 105 CESCR, General Comment No 3, para 10. See also ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on education, Kishore Singh’ (2011) UN Doc A/66/269; ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque’ (2011) UN Doc A/66/255; ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona’ (2014) UN Doc A/HRC/26/28; and ‘Report of the Independent Expert on international solidarity, Virginia Dandan’ (2015) UN Doc A/70/316. 106 See, eg, CESCR, ‘General Comment No 3 and CRC, General Comment No 15 (2013) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health (Art 24)’ (2013) UN Doc CRC/C/GC/15, para 73. 107 See, eg, CESCR General Comment No 12, paras 8–13; General Comment No 14, paras 43–45; General Comment No 15, paras 37–38; General Comment No 17, paras 39–40; General Comment No 18, para 31; General Comment No 19, paras 59–61; and General Comment No 22, para 49. 108 See, eg, ‘Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on health, Anand Grover’ (main focus: health financing in the context of the right to health) (2012) UN Doc A/67/302, para 9; ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona’ (2014) UN Doc A/HRC/26/28. 109 See, eg, CESCR, General Comment No 14, para 43; General Comment No 12, para 17; ‘Report of the Independent Expert on international solidarity, Virginia Dandan’ (2015) UN Doc A/70/316. 110 CRC, General Comment No 19, para 31. ‘The immediate and minimum core obligations imposed by children’s rights shall not be compromised by any retrogressive measures, even in times of economic crisis’. CESCR, General Comment No 3, para 14. 111 See, eg, ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on water and sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque’ (2011) UN Doc A/66/255. See also, CESCR, General Comment Nos 3, 12 and 14. December 2017   The Obligation to Mobilise Resources: Bridging Human Rights, Sustainable Development Goals, and Economic and Fiscal Policies 41