A human rights approach to alleviating poverty in working households A human rights approach to poverty reduction ‘compels us to look behind national averages and identify the most vulnerable people – and design strategies to help them. A human rights approach is grounded in the United Nations Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and binding provisions of human rights treaties. Moreover it sharpens the moral basis of the work carried out by economists and other policy-makers, directing their attention to the most deprived and excluded’.43 Human rights provide not only standards against which we can assess what is going wrong, but also a framework for how to respond: applying a human rights-based approach enables us to work effectively on alleviating poverty. A human rights-based approach to poverty requires us to apply human rights principles such as indivisibility, accountability, non-discrimination and equality, participation, transparency and sustainability.44 A human rights-based approach means that human rights standards and principles are placed at the centre of planning, policy and practice. It can help ensure that strategies not only focus on reducing monetary poverty, but also address structural causes and related human rights violations. A human rights-based approach to solving poverty in working households relies on the participation of rights holders to design systems that empower rather than disadvantage. Likewise, Te Tiriti o Waitangi requires partnership decision-making, ensuring that tangata whenua can exercise mana motuhake (authority) and rangatiratanga (selfdetermination) when making decisions over their own futures. He Urupare Tika Tangata mō te Pōharatanga ō ngā Whānau Whaimahi 17