Working households in poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand Background The NZWRI Research In 2019, research commissioned by the Human Rights Commission and conducted by Auckland University of Technology’s (AUT’s) New Zealand Work Research Institute culminated in the publication of the report, ‘In-Work Poverty in New Zealand’.1 We will refer to this as ‘the NZWRI Research’. and provide an overview of just some of the human rights issues that are raised by the NZWRI Research, to contextualise these in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide an overview of what a human rights based approach will require to alleviate poverty in working households in Aotearoa New Zealand. The NZWRI Research was the first of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand, providing a compilation of data related to poverty and employment in our country and an analysis of the extent and characteristics of in-work poor households. The extent of in-work poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand had never been studied in this way before. The main purpose of this report is to offer a framework for responding to the issue of poverty in working households in Aotearoa New Zealand by outlining what a human rights approach should entail and what possible policy and other changes that will be needed. The research and its findings were ground-breaking in that they revealed for the first time the scale and nature of the problem of poverty in working households in our country. The research identified, based on data from the 2013 Census, that over 50,000 working households live in poverty throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. This Report This report builds on the NZWRI Research and international human rights law and practice on poverty in working households. It does not attempt to provide a comprehensive human rights analysis of working households in poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand nor a thorough human rights analysis of the NZWRI Research. Rather, it seeks to introduce 2 Human Rights Responses to Poverty in Working Households The data and findings from the NZWRI Research are the starting point for this human rights overview of working households in poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand, from which we can begin to understand who is suffering most, why, and what can be done about it. In this report, we propose a human rights-based approach to responding to poverty in working households. This is consistent with international human rights law and our obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This approach can guide us in determining how we can identify the systemic changes needed to reduce poverty, prioritise lives and livelihoods, and realise human rights for all. This report proposes that we use human rights as the framework to identify possible responses and areas where further work is needed.