Over the last two decades, a number of bilateral and multilateral donors have adopted rightsbased approaches to development. The relative recentness of this process requires a sharing of knowledge and experience across professional and disciplinary boundaries. This background paper for ODI's event series on Human Rights and Poverty Reduction focuses on the pillar of human rights work, exposing and opposing violations of economic and social rights. Its purpose is to summarise key lessons of human rights litigation that can support anti-poverty policies, using an array of real-life cases from different corners of the world.