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Governments must stop denying torture and hold officials to account
by Nils Melzer
UN special rapporteur on torture and inhumane treatment
 
Too many countries blame torture on rogue officials, deny systemic patterns of torture, and fail to hold torturers to account, an independent UN human rights expert today told the General Assembly.
 
“There is a worldwide accountability gap for torture and ill-treatment,” Nils Melzer, UN special rapporteur on torture and inhumane treatment, said in presenting a report on accountability. “Torture and ill-treatment are almost always a systemic problem, but scapegoating individuals allows States to deny the existence of structural or systemic patterns and evade their duty to take effective preventative and corrective measures.”
 
The absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment obliges States to prevent, investigate, prosecute and redress any such abuse occurring within their jurisdiction, but governments continue to obstruct true accountability through outright denial and legal and structural barriers, he said.
 
“As a result, the vast majority of those responsible for perpetrating, instigating, consenting or acquiescing to torture or ill-treatment are never held to account,” Melzer said. “This generalized attitude of denial and trivialization not only betrays millions of individual victims and their families but, more generally, profoundly damages the credibility of states’ commitment to the entire international system of human rights protection.”
 
Accountability for torture and ill-treatment are a prerequisite for ensuring justice, reconciliation, the rule of law, and the prevention of future violations, Melzer said.
 
He urged States to take immediate steps – backed by adequate resources -- towards ensuring comprehensive implementation and enforcement of the absolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, in line with their obligation to prevent, investigate, prosecute, punish and redress such crimes.
 
“States must distance themselves from any form of window-dressing, and demonstrate the political courage and determination required to eradicate systemic patterns of secrecy, collusion, and impunity for torture and ill-treatment and to ensure both institutional and individual accountability for such abuse,” Melzer said.
 
http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/03/unless-states-start-walking-their-talk-torture-ban-will-remain-pie-sky-un http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-torture/annual-thematic-reports-special-rapporteur http://www.ohchr.org/en/publications/policy-and-methodological-publications/istanbul-protocol-manual-effective-0 http://www.ohchr.org/en/about-us/funding-and-budget/trust-funds/united-nations-voluntary-fund-victims-torture http://www.osce.org/odihr/521098


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Tax Justice is not a Technical Battle, It is a crucial tool to advance Human Rights
by Magdalena Sepulveda, Leonce Ndikumana
Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation
 
Dec. 2021
 
Tax Justice is not a Technical Battle, It is a crucial tool to advance Human Rights, by Magdalena Sepulveda.
 
Much has been said about the 'post-pandemic world', the one that would rise from the ashes in the aftermath of the pandemic, hopefully less materialistic, more sustainable, more supportive, and feminist. But a new wave of infections and the emergence of variants seem to be pushing back this 'post-Covid-19' once again, and we are entering the third year of the health crisis.
 
As the world commemorates 'International Human Rights Day' on 10 December, hypocrisy and cynicism remain the order of the day, particularly on the part of rich countries, which pay lip service to the issue while at the same time contributing to the denial of basic human rights to the majority of the world population.
 
Covid-19 is the best example of this. Despite their promises, most Northern states have monopolized and hoarded vaccines. These days, they are turning a deaf ear while a hundred or so emerging countries, led by South Africa and India, are demanding the lifting of patents on vaccines and treatments against the virus. While intellectual property rights are not the only reason why barely 7% of Africans are fully vaccinated, they certainly are a major obstacle.
 
This selfishness regarding access to vaccines is not only morally outrageous, but also already coming back like a boomerang to hit rich countries as new variants emerge.
 
The other lamentable image of this end of 2021 is the increasing number of migrant tragedies at the gates of Poland, in the Mediterranean, in the English Channel, or at the border between Mexico and the United States. Here again, the leaders of the rich countries pretend to forget that, while economic recovery is evident in their own countries, it is still to come in the developing world, which has suffered an explosion of poverty since the start of the pandemic, forcing hundreds of thousands of people into exile.
 
An estimated 97 million more people are living on less than US$1.90 a day as a result of the pandemic, and another 163 million are living on less than US$5.50 a day. Three to four years of progress towards eradicating extreme poverty have been utterly lost.
 
Far from the headlines, a recent news item highlights the double talk of the major powers: the reform of the taxation of multinationals. After two years of negotiations, an agreement was adopted at the beginning of October, with the introduction of a global tax on corporate profits as its key measure. The aim? To put an end to the devastating competition between states in terms of corporate taxation, which is causing a hemorrhage of resources at the expense of funding for rights such as access to water, health, education, or vaccines.
 
At least US$483 billion in tax revenue is lost each year to tax abuse by multinationals and wealthy individuals. This would be enough to cover more than three times the cost of a full Covid-19 vaccine regimen for the entire world population.
 
The world will continue to be deprived of these funds. Negotiations led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the OECD, without really listening to developing countries, have only resulted in the introduction of a 15% tax on multinationals. This will only generate US$150 billion in additional tax revenue, which will, moreover, go primarily to rich countries.
 
An additional US$250 billion could have been raised with a 21% rate, for example, or even US$500 billion with a 25% rate, as advocated by ICRICT, the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation, of which I am a member, along with such figures as Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty, Jayati Ghosh, and José Antonio Ocampo.
 
Here again, the leaders of rich countries are concerned about the extent of tax evasion but remain convinced that the best way to serve their national interest is to submit to the injunctions of multinationals and the demands of tax havens.
 
Most of these tax havens are not small islands lined with coconut palms: OECD countries are responsible for 78% of the annual tax losses worldwide to multinationals and the richest. The most hypocritical country is the UK, which, with its network of overseas territories and 'Crown Dependencies', is responsible for 39% of global losses.
 
A better world is possible, thanks to a growing movement of people around the world who are challenging governments to make multinationals and the super-rich pay their fair share.
 
Continuing to tolerate tax avoidance and tax evasion by most multinationals and the richest, and consequently depriving states of additional resources, is a direct attack on human rights.
 
Without these funds, it is impossible to restore the health systems that have fought heroically against the virus - thousands of doctors and nurses have lost their lives - despite their meagre resources, which are constantly under attack by austerity programs. It is also impossible to give a future to all the children out of school during and due to the pandemic - 99% of children in Latin America, for example, were out of school for a whole year, and an estimated 3.1 million of them are out of school forever.
 
Without additional funds, it is also impossible to finance infrastructure, provide access to water or sanitation, or to daycares and nursing homes, all of which continues to increase the workload of women, who are the first victims of the pandemic. Finally, it is impossible to deal with the climate emergency, as the increase in natural disasters is depriving entire populations of shelter and food.
 
It is painful that the rulers of the rich countries have once again failed to address the magnitude of the crises we are going through. But a better world is possible, thanks to a growing movement of people around the world who are challenging governments to make multinationals and the super-rich pay their fair share.
 
Each country can, if it wishes, unilaterally adopt a much more ambitious tax rate for multinationals, starting with the Europeans. The ripple effect on the others will be inescapable. Tax justice is not a technical battle, it is a crucial tool for advancing human rights.
 
* Magdalena Sepulveda is Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and a member of the Independent Commission on International Corporate Tax Reform (ICRICT). From 2008-2014 she was the UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. http://www.gi-escr.org/
 
Nov. 2021
 
For Rich Countries to honor their Climate Debt, we must better Tax Multinationals, by Leonce Ndikumana.
 
It is infuriating to see that the world in the midst of this existential climate emergency has just deprived itself of precious financial resources by adopting a cheap global agreement on the taxation of multinationals.
 
For once, most of the debtors are not in Africa, but in the North. I am not talking money, but about climate debt, as natural disasters are multiplying and the fight against climate change has become an existential issue. Since industrialized countries have used the available atmospheric space to develop and get rich by exploiting fossil fuels, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26)—that is coming to end in Glasgow right now—must be an opportunity to recognize this climate debt to Africa, and to developing countries in general, and to honor it.
 
With 4% of global emissions, Africa has contributed very little to global warming. Yet, it is the continent that is already suffering the most from its consequences. Need we remind you, for example, that, just last year, Sudan had to face its worst floods in sixty years, with 500,000 people displaced and 5.5 million hectares of agricultural land destroyed? And this is not an isolated case: according to a recent report on adaptation in Africa by the Global Centre for Adaptation (GCA), the number of floods has increased fivefold since the 1990s.
 
It is not just about the injustices of the past. Even today, rich countries remain the champions of greenhouse gas emissions. In North America, each person emits an average of 20 tons of CO2 per year, compared to 10 for a European. In China, the average person emits 8 tons of CO2 per year, compared to 2.6 tons in Southeast Asia and 1.6 tons in sub-Saharan Africa.
 
Honoring their climate debt means that the countries of the North must help developing countries to adapt to climate disasters, which we know will occur, even in the most optimistic of scenarios. Developing countries must also be given the means to make the transition to less polluting energy sources. An effort that amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars.
 
These funds exist, as the publication of the "Pandora Papers" has just reminded us, and they must be sought where they are: in the accounts hidden in tax havens owned by multinationals and multi-millionaires who, for decades, have not paid their fair share of taxes.
 
All the more so since, throughout the world, those who pollute the most are also the richest. The World Inequality Lab has just shown that the wealthiest 1% of individuals produce 17% of the world's carbon emissions, while the whole poorest half of humanity (3.8 billion people) is responsible for only 12% of these emissions.
 
In this context, it is infuriating to see that the world has just deprived itself of precious financial resources by adopting a cheap global agreement on the taxation of multinationals. Imposed by the Northern capitals, following a negotiation that did not take into account the demands of developing countries, this reform has allowed the establishment of a modest global minimum tax rate of 15%. The objective?
 
To put an end to the devastating competition between countries in terms of corporate taxation, in the illusion of attracting more investment. And for good reason, global nominal tax rates on corporate profits have fallen from an average of 40% in the 1980s to 23% in 2018. If the decline continued at the same rate, corporate taxes could fall to zero by 2052.
 
To stop this decline, the United States proposed a global minimum tax rate of 21 percent, which would have generated more than US $200 billion in tax revenue. The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT)—of which I am a member along with economists such as Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman, Jose Antonio Ocampo and Jayati Ghosh—advocated a rate of 25%, which would recover most of the US $240 billion that is lost each year to what is modestly called tax optimization.
 
In the end, however, it was the lack of ambition that prevailed, with a global minimum rate of 15%, which is barely more than the rate implemented by tax havens such as Ireland, and which should not generate more than 100 billion US dollars in additional resources per year!
 
At 15%, the risk is that this low global minimum rate will become the global norm, and that a reform that was intended to force multinationals to pay their fair share of taxes will end up doing exactly the opposite, by pushing countries with higher tax levels—such as African ones—to lower them to match the rest of the world.
 
In addition, the countries signing the agreement commit to refrain from introducing taxes on digital multinationals. It is no coincidence that two African countries, Kenya and Nigeria, are among the only ones to have refused to endorse this agreement, precisely so as not to have to abolish these taxes and deprive themselves of these tax resources.
 
In the midst of a global pandemic, and after having seen rich countries monopolize and hoard vaccines, this agreement raises doubts as to whether rich countries alone will honor their climate debt.
 
Africa must now make its voice heard by allying itself with other developing countries and demand a new round of negotiations on the taxation of multinationals that take into account the needs of the South. It is now indisputable that we will not succeed in stopping climate change without tackling inequalities, whether between or within countries!
 
* Leonce Ndikumana is a Professor of economics and Director of the African Development Policy Program at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. He is a Commissioner on the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT).
 
http://www.wider.unu.edu/news/press-release-new-research-reveals-close-1-trillion-profits-shifted-tax-havens http://www.icrict.com/press-release/2022/9/16/icrict-declaration-an-emergency-tax-plan-to-confront-the-inflation-crisis-m87sa http://taxjustice.net/press/governments-can-recover-billions-from-tax-havens-by-publishing-withheld-transparency-data/ http://www.transparency.org/en/news/9-fixes-global-standard-beneficial-ownership-transparency-trusts-recommendation-25
 
http://www.taxjustice.net/reports/state-of-tax-justice-2022/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a77169-towards-global-fiscal-architecture-using-human-rights-lens-report http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/11/human-rights-experts-support-call-un-tax-treaty http://taxjustice.net/press/un-secretary-general-signals-support-for-un-tax-convention/ http://taxjustice.net/press/un-tax-convention-proposed-at-general-assembly/ http://globaltaxjustice.org/news/civil-society-organisations-support-the-g77-and-china-proposal-on-un-intergovernmental-tax-body-and-the-africa-groups-proposal-on-a-un-tax-convention/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/global-tax-proposal-gains-ground-at-un-as-oecd-plan-falters/
 
http://wid.world/news-article/climate-change-the-global-inequality-of-carbon-emissions/ http://www.icrict.com/press-release/2021/10/12/icrict-open-letter-to-g20-leaders-a-global-tax-deal-for-the-rich http://www.icrict.com/icrict-documentsthe-global-pandemic-sustainable-economic-recovery-and-international-taxation http://taxjustice.net/category/inequality-and-human-rights/ http://www.lemonde.fr/blog/piketty/2021/10/12/pandora-papers-lets-take-action/
 
http://thefactcoalition.org/new-analysis-shows-investors-representing-10t-support-greater-tax-transparency-for-large-multinationals/ http://thefactcoalition.org/global-civil-society-groups-turn-up-the-pressure-on-u-s-treasury-to-tackle-dirty-money-and-financial-secrecy-at-home/ http://thefactcoalition.org/issues/ http://globaltaxjustice.org/_news/ http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/economists-activists-and-millionaires-register-landmark-european-citizens-initiative


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