UN Tax Convention

Our demands

  • A truly universal, intergovernmental process at the UN to comprehensively address tax havens, tax abuse by multinational corporations and other illicit financial flows that obstruct redistribution and drain resources crucial to challenging gender inequality.
  • Taxing income, wealth and trade should support the internationally agreed human rights frameworks (to mobilize the maximum available revenues). Tax abuse and tax avoidance should be considered under the extraterritorial obligations of states towards other states. Abusive tax laws and rules hamper the enjoyment of human rights via blocking financing.
  • International tax rules exacerbate inequalities within and between countries. Therefore, taxing rights must be determined by countries.
  • Regulate and control monopolization of sectors. e.g. care, in digital services and infrastructure.
  • Curb ‘tax wars’ – tax competition (eliminate tax incentives, set a progressive model for progressive tax treaties, consider minimum corporate tax rates, ensure equity and control over withholding taxes).
  • Establish an extension of a universal and multilateral tax transparency policy platform (ABC policy trio adopted by tax justice movement), which can curb ‘offshoring’ of wealth and the shifting of profits including the regulation of trusts and foundations, and enable governments to maximize available resources and redistribute them in support of realization of women’s rights.
  • Monitor and evaluate impact of IFFs (channels of flow and scale) – the vulnerability of countries and the impact of the rights of women nationally and as a spillover impact.
The dimension of Gender Equality

The absence of redistributive justice redirects negative impacts on the shoulders of women. Regressive taxation measures and illicit financial flows (especially corporate tax abuse and tax havens, as stated by the CEDAW Committee) reduce the fiscal space for governments, who then are not able to spend the maximum amount of resources to ensure gender equality and women’s human rights. This increases the burden of unpaid domestic and care work.