Chapter 1 | Page 36 objectives’106 that are ‘aspirational’ rather than ‘enforceable’.107 Hence ESC rights have often been characterised as the ‘poor cousin’ of Civil and Political rights108 and have received less attention in national and international human rights advocacy platforms. In order to change this characterisation and to bring ESC rights to the forefront of State policy ‘a complex interaction of policies and programs in a wide range of sectors and institutions’109 is needed. This can be accomplished by paying due regard to State practice and providing theoretical space for the identification of practical and enforceable elements of these rights. Such an approach is also essential to entrench ESC rights within various spheres of State policy and to provide a more coherent, defensible and pragmatic basis for the application of these rights, which is necessary for the protection of human dignity and the realisation of social justice. It can be argued that human rights norms should guide the accountability of governments for policies and actions that affect their citizens.110 Despite this legal assurance, however, individuals often have no effective guarantee that they will be protected against State inaction in the realisation of ESC rights, nor are they likely to have any assurance of continuous improvement in their economic, social and cultural conditions.111 While this is a reflection of the hard reality of the politics of human rights in general, the impact of such uncertainty on ESC rights enjoyment is particularly severe. Therefore, given the strong moral and instrumental case for human rights and dignity,112 the ability of to Food, Water, Housing, and Health?' (2004) 98(3) The American Journal of International Law 462-515, 464. 106 Ibid. 107 Todd Landman, 'Measuring Human Rights and the Impact of Human Rights Policy' (Paper presented at the Conference on Human Rights Impact Assessment, Brussels, 1920 November 2001) 6. 108 Saul, Kinley and Mowbray, above n 33, 1. 109 Mary Robinson, 'Advancing Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: The Way Forward' (2004) 26 Human Rights Quarterly 866-887, 871. 110 Todd Landman and Edzia Carvalho, Measuring Human Rights (Routledge, London, 2010), 10. 111 112 Vierdag, above n 10, 101. Arjun Sengupta, 'The Human Right to Development' in Bård A Andreassen and Stephen P Marks (eds), Development as a Human Right (Harvard School of Public Health, London,