ABSTRACT
This chapter contains a brief introduction to the problem of poverty. It reviews common definitions, statistics, and traditional social work practice in the area of poverty to set context for identifying the human rights most pertinent to poverty. Rights-based approaches typically extend the view of poverty as the result of a lack of participation in all aspects of social life. Poverty is recognized as a massive social problem and threat to global well-being, and is one of the chief problems that social workers confront. Rights-based approaches to poverty are the idea that every human being has the right to a life that is free from poverty. The chapter reviews a case example of a rights-based approach to poverty in the US is the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC). Connections between human rights and economic development include a focus on participation and social development, and have fostered a rights-based turn in development.
