CSP adopts a rights-based approach to all its work. Charity is not the answer and in reality, can be part of the problem. A rights-based approach amplifies the voices of rights holders, listens to them, and empowers them to be architects of a fairer society. By strengthening their voices, individually and collective, rights-holders are able to hold duty bearers to account.

Duty bearers are those with the responsibility, legally or morally, to respect, promote, realize and defend human rights and to abstain from human rights violations. Often they are individual officers or institutions of government but they can also be companies, civil society, faith groups or private individuals. What is always the case is that they have the responsibility, and often the power and resource, to improve or protect the lives and livelihoods of rights-holders.