Chapter 1 | Page 35 developed.99 Therefore, a new paradigm is needed to address these shortcomings both in theoretical understanding and practical application of ESC rights obligations. This study identifies various challenges in the macroeconomic policy environment that must be addressed to provide incentives for empowerment and the creation of economic and social platforms essential for the realisation of ESC rights. 1.5.2 Bringing ESC rights to the forefront of State policy It is vital for ESC rights to be fully entrenched in domestic practice through legal and institutional recognition and enforceable practices. As Amartya Sen has pointed out, although legislation alone is not enough to invoke human rights,100 if a right is not legislated, then it is an ‘empty noise’101 and may lack the ‘bite’.102 It can equally be argued that the moral position for the protection of human rights also extends beyond the simple instrumentality of the legal regime to include socio-economic justifications, which would give weight to what John Rawls calls ‘public reasoning’ in determining the viability of human rights.103 Such public reasoning is essential for bringing ESC rights concerns to the attention of policy makers and ensuring that they are given proper attention at all times. As pointed out earlier, in addition to being identified as ‘resource-intensive’104, ESC rights have long been seen more as ‘hortatory goals’105 or ‘programmatic 99 Dan Seymour and Jonathan Pincus, 'Human Rights and Economics: The Conceptual Basis for their Complementarity' (2008) 26(4) Development Policy Review 387-405, 387388. 100 Amartya Sen, 'Human Rights and Development' in Bård A Andreassen and Stephen P Marks (eds), Development as a Human Right (Harvard School of Public Health, 2006) 1-8, 4. 101 Ibid., 2. 102 Ibid., 1. 103 John Rawls, 'The Idea of Public Reason Revisited' (1997) 64 The University of Chicago Law Review 765–807; Sen, above n 100, 3. 104 For discussions on resource-intensiveness, see Vierdag, above n 10; Agbakwa, above n 10, 187. 105 Michael J Dennis and David P Stewart, 'Justiciability of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: Should There Be an International Complaints Mechanism to Adjudicate the Rights