This article is an attempt to outline the possible implications of a rights‐based approach to social protection and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It starts with some remarks on the role of social protection floors and human rights in a new global social contract. It then provides a framework as to how the rights‐based approach can be operationalised – for four main human rights principles and using structural, process and output indicators. It applies this framework to the right to social security. The penultimate section shows that the adoption of national social protection floors would constitute a key ingredient to a human rights approach towards achieving the MDGs before and after 2015. It also points out the potential role of the UN Human Rights Council in monitoring MDGs in the future.