Chapter 2 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Obligation to Take Steps to the ‘Maximum of Available Resources’ 2.1 INTRODUCTION Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESC rights) are subject to progressive realisation, lay claim on public resources and, and to a large extent, depend on the positive obligations on the States. For these and other historic reasons, ESC rights are seen as a ‘qualitatively different category’ from other rights in that they are seen not only as rights but also as goals of economic and social policy.1 The nature of ESC rights is also understood to be distinct from that of Civil and Political rights because they are seen to have less relevance as individual claims but are, rather, simply ‘statements of public policy goals’.2 This is despite the fact that rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) are equally justiciable on an individual basis.3 The aim of this chapter is to provide historical and textual background to ESC rights and the nature of State obligations within the international human rights 1 Philip Alston and Gerard Quinn, 'The Nature and Scope of States Parties' Obligations under the International Covenant on Economic , Social and Cultural Rights' (1987) 9(2) Human Rights Quarterly 156-229, 158. 2 Shareen Hertel and Lanse Minkler, 'Economic Rights: The Terrain' in Shareen Hertel and Lanse Minkler (eds), Economic Rights: Conceptual, Measurement, and Policy Issues (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007), 23. 3 For example see, Malcolm Langford, Aoife Nolan and Bruce Porter, 'The Justiciability of Social and Economic Rights: An Updated Appraisal' (CHRGJ Working Paper No. 15, Centre For Human Rights and Global Justice, 2007); Hertel and Minkler, above n 2; 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 to Food, Water, Housing, and Health?' (2004) 98(3) The American Journal of International Law 462-515.