Chapter 1 | Page 37 individuals to enjoy their fundamental human rights should be among the paramount objectives of society and government policy. Accordingly, one of the key aims of this study is to identify policy approaches that can help bring ESC rights to the forefront of government action, specifically in relation to budgeting, design and implementation of public policy programmes. This is based on the recognition that, there is need to develop a more unified conceptual framework on the nature, quality and quantity of resources required for the realisation of ESC rights and to identify the key considerations under which these resources must be allocated and utilised for the realisation of these rights. Such a framework will not only enrich the human rights understanding of these concepts but will also deepen understanding of these individual concepts in their own right. The exercise of positioning these economic and public policy concepts within the rubric of legal thought on international human rights obligations and incorporating a practitioner’s perspective adds more value to this approach. 1.5.3 Economics and policy dynamics of ‘maximum available resources’ The role of economics and public policy in shaping how human rights concerns can be asserted within the State is one of the key questions to emerge from this discussion. Given the essentially economic and political nature of public sector resources management practice, a cross-disciplinary analysis can be invaluable to better understand the many challenges to and opportunities for strengthening the case for ESC rights realisation. It is argued that, while human rights contribute to freeing people from fear, economics makes its contribution by freeing people from want.113 Hence there is an ‘economic dimension to human rights as much as a human rights 2006) 9-35, 25; Andrew Fagan, Human Rights: Confronting Myths and Misunderstandings (Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, 2009), 17. 113 Manuel Couret Branco, Economics versus Human Rights (Routledge, London, 2009).