Chapter 2 | Page 92 2.4.3 Effective allocation of available resources: Targeting core obligations and the most vulnerable Responsibility on the States to comply with core obligations under the ICESCR are not limited by the availability of resources, and any failure to utilise maximum of available resources towards the fulfilment of the rights amount to a violation of the Covenant obligations.229 Thus, the State is required to demonstrate that ‘every effort has been made to use all resources that are at its disposal in an effort to satisfy, as a matter of priority, those core obligations.’230 Here, the State must take into consideration the full range of options available in order to effectively target resources towards fulfilling core obligations. In its more recent Concluding Observations, the Committee has taken a stronger stance on States not taking resource allocation seriously. For example, in the case of Armenia in 2014, the Committee expressed concern that ‘maximum available resources are not used by the State party to progressively achieve the full realization of the rights recognized in the Covenant’231 and went on to recommend that the State take specific steps ‘to improve the capacity of line ministries on public finance management’232 and to ‘ensure that resources are effectively allocated according to programme budgeting criteria, and increase political awareness of the need to allocate substantial additional resources to health and education’.233 Resources required for the realisation of ESC rights are particularly relevant in the context of State budgetary resources and the implications of international assistance and co-operation.234 Given that a State’s programmes and activities are carried out and reflected through the national budget, which 229 International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), above n 106, [9] [10] [14] [15] [19]. 230 An evaluation of the Obligation to take steps to the "Maximum Available Resources" under an Optional Protocol to the Covenant, E/C.12/2007/1, above n 210, [6]. 231 CESCR, Concluding observations: Armenia, E/C.12/ARM/CO/2-3 (23 May 2014), [9]. 232 Ibid. 233 Ibid. 234 Skogly, above n 36.