As part of London Challenge Poverty Week and Action on Human Rights Week and supported by 4in10 we  hosted a free workshop on Monday 11 of October which examined how a human rights-based approach can be a powerful tool in anti-poverty campaigning.

We were joined by anti-poverty campaigners from across London to explore how poverty was an issue that impacted on many different rights, most notably those in ICESCR such as the right to work, to education, to food, to shelter and to health.

We looked at examples of organisations in other places who used human rights in innovative ways to tackle poverty and it’s causes, including the use of human rights budgeting by the ACIJ in Argentina, and the #NoOneLeftBehind campaign by PPR in Northern Ireland.

In the  second half of the session, Susanna Hunter-Darch of the Social Rights Alliance project then took participants through the PANEL principles – the five key principles of a human rights-based approach: Participation,  Accountability, Non-discrimination, Empowerment and Legality.

Together we looked at each principle and thought about what they would mean in our own anti-poverty campaigning.

The session wrapped up with participants giving some early ideas of how they might begin to apply a human rights-based approach in their work.

We plan to run a similar session for civil society organisations in January 2022, so keep your eyes on our events page, or sign up to our newsletter for more information.