Under international law, violations of ESC rights occur when States breach their obligations, through acts or omissions, to ensure the enjoyment of these rights without discrimination, and to respect, protect and fulfil these rights. The following sections review a number of the critical applicable international ESC rights standards with the aim of encouraging practitioners to apply them to the widest extent in their work at the domestic level. Awareness of the international standards, including provisions and jurisprudence, to which their States have adhered will help practitioners to identify the human rights aspects of the situations and cases they are confronted with in their daily work. Referring to international standards defining obligations and violations of ESC rights also contributes to fill normative gaps that exist in most domestic legal frameworks, and helps to give content and meaning to the existing provisions that are relevant to ESC rights protection.