|x Preface and Acknowledgments My interest in advancing human rights is driven by a strong desire to see positive changes in the lives of people whose rights are violated or remain unfulfilled. My work at the Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) and interactions with human rights defenders and a number of National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia-Pacific region assured me of the value of the dedicated work of many individuals in promoting and protecting human rights. When I embarked on my PhD journey, I saw this as yet another personal step in making my own small contribution to this goal. Within the broad spectrum of human rights, this research focuses on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESC rights) and, in particular, on the concept of resources. This is mainly motivated by the wish to address the low level of interest in ESC rights in human rights scholarship and the lack of policy attention to these rights by many States. In fact, in most cases, States are unlikely to be named and shamed for failing to respect, protect and fulfil their ESC rights obligations. Is it possible that ESC rights receive less attention because of their resource-intensiveness? A preliminary review of existing literature and debates on ESC rights invariably points to resources and policy dynamics as relevant factors, which convinced me that it was essential to address these aspects if ESC rights are to be moved to the forefront of human rights policy. This problem has kept me occupied for the last 3 ½ years. Researching and writing a doctoral thesis is not easy. The work has never been straightforward. It has been filled with moments of doubt, times of serendipity and then more doubt―what was crystal clear at one moment became totally mysterious a short time later. Moreover, the body of scholarship on ESC rights seems to be in a constant state of flux. Keeping pace with new and emerging ideas and an ever-expanding literature on ESC rights required enormous motivation and self-discipline.