The human rights impacts of poverty in working households Poverty affects wellbeing and human dignity, concepts that underpin the foundation of human rights. Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of human rights violations; it is a result of deprivation and it leads to further deprivation. Poverty is not only a lack of income; it is a lack of access to goods, services and participation in society, which are essential for the enjoyment of human rights. This is the multi-dimensional nature of poverty. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defines poverty as: ‘a human condition characterised by sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights’.4 Poverty creates obstacles that make it harder to access human rights such as the right to adequate housing, food, health, education, work, and civil and political rights such as the right to fair trial and political participation. A lack of implementation of these rights also makes it difficult escape the poverty trap. 8 Human Rights Responses to Poverty in Working Households People experiencing poverty in working households encounter a range of human rights impacts: they ‘live in a vicious cycle of powerlessness, stigmatization, discrimination, exclusion and material deprivation, which all mutually reinforce one another’.5 Poverty has various manifestations, including lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure sustainable livelihoods; hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increased morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments; and social discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterized by a lack of participation in decision-making and in civil, social and cultural life.6 These impacts are the result of actions and inactions on the part of governments and decision-makers, indicating failings in the fulfilment of their duties to respect, protect, and fulfil human rights for all. These human rights, when applied in a Te Tiriti framework, also provide us with the way forward: improving access to human rights is a tool for alleviating poverty.