About Liz Nelson
Do women go unseen in tax justice?
Imagine if over 50 per cent of the world’s population were cast with an invisibility that impacts their birth, their childhood, their working life, their parenting life, their caring life, their mental and physical health and well-being, and their death? Less hard to imagine, perhaps, if you are one of the women represented in that majority. On International Women’s Day
Read the full article…UN expert: Don’t shy away from human rights impacts of fiscal reforms
Today Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, the UN’s independent expert on foreign debt and human rights, published the Guiding Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments of Economic Reforms. Its purpose is ‘to assist States, international financial institutions, creditors, civil society and others to ensure that economic policies are embedded in human rights’. They will be presented to the Human Rights Council on
Read the full article…Taxing for ‘true equality’: EU adopts tax and gender proposals
“Gender equality can and should be promoted at all levels, including fiscal policy. This report is an important step towards the promotion of a more equitable distribution of income, wealth, opportunities, productive assets and services. That is, true equality”. So said MEP Marisa Matias at Monday’s debate in the EU Parliament and presentation of the report on Gender equality and taxation
Read the full article…Too little interest, too little political will to address inequalities and human rights?
On Monday 7 January, an adjournment debate took place in the UK parliament on the recent UN report on poverty and austerity in the UK. It was hosted by the UK Labour party’s Shadow Minister for Children, Emma Lewell-Buck. Scheduled at the end of the day’s parliamentary business, the debate drew a crowd of fourteen MPs. Emma Lewell-Buck gave a powerful
Read the full article…Women continue to take the lions share of austerity
Ahead of the UK Autumn budget statement (29th October 2018) the UK Women’s Budget Group (WBG) provided an important analysis of why austerity isn’t over, especially for women living in the UK. It is a useful point to reflect on the role of tax and its gendered implications. TweetShare
Public Services and Economic Injustice in Tax Break Ireland
The reality of ill-health leaves little time to dwell on rights and justice, or on what might turn out to be empty promises – as the Irish Examiner reports. And while the experience of living with ill health might be said to be something of a leveller, it is not. There is no ‘level playing field’ if health services are a
Read the full article…The damage of International Monetary Fund ‘conditionality’: call for urgent rethink
Countries often take loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when they have little or no alternative sources of funding, as is the case for many countries in the Global South who are on the sharp end of capitalism and its unquenchable thirst. After decades of the plundering of resources and of post-colonial exploitation there’s additional destitution created by international
Read the full article…Guest blog: Illicit Financial Flows: Damaging the foundations of justice
We’re very pleased to share the views of Sakshi Rai, the Programme Consultant at the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) in New Delhi. In this guest blog Sakshi Rai introduces two new explainer briefs: The problem of illicit financial flows poses the greatest development challenge in present times. Illicit finance is generated through both national and international illicit
Read the full article…Economic reforms and austerity: A ‘wicked problem’ impacting on women
In March 2017 the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution mandating the United Nations Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights Mr. Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky to consider the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights. We were especially pleased that
Read the full article…Tax Justice is a feminist issue: call on governments to act
We celebrate International Women’s Day today by reaffirming tax as a feminist issue. In advocating for greater tax transparency and accountability we, as feminists, are not only demanding multilateral progressive tax policies and a global financial architecture that recognises and disaggregates by gender, but a complete rethink of the orthodoxy; of what fair taxation policies should look like for greater
Read the full article…Conference Report: Platform for Collaboration on Tax First Global Conference on Taxation and SDGs 14 -16th February, 2018
Subject to resource availability The Platform for Collaboration on Tax held its inaugural conference in New York last week (14-16 February, 2018). With the backdrop of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) this collaborative initiative choreographed by Platform Partners – International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations (UN) and the World Bank (WB) – reminded
Read the full article…The Bogota Declaration on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights
The Bogota Declaration on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights is being launched around the world today (7 December 2017) through online platforms and at tax justice events in Argentina and Chile. You can read the Declaration text in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili here: EN / ES / FR / PT / AR / Swahili Organisations are invited to join
Read the full article…#ParadisePapers: UN human rights experts react: States must act against abusive tax conduct
The United Nations Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and human rights has released a strong statement on the ethical responsibility of corporations in the wake of the Paradise Papers revelations. The current Independent Expert, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky has said ““Corporate tax abuse undermines social justice and human rights worldwide.” His remit includes monitoring the impact of illicit
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