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	2021 World Congress on Justice with Children by Global Initiative on Justice With Children   Oct. 2021   Children in contact with the law face multi-dimensional violence, discrimination, rights violations, and structural barriers throughout their contact with justice systems.   In the first blog of our series for the World Congress on Justice with Children, Penal Reform International’s Tríona Lenihan considers the key barriers to children’s equal access to justice and presents the upcoming Congress which focuses on non-discriminatory and inclusive child justice systems.   Many children around the world experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, which often result in social exclusion, lack of access to services and resources, and violations of their human rights.   Children in contact with criminal justice systems – whether that is as victims, witnesses, or perpetrators – can experience additional discrimination from the justice system itself. Structural discrimination, inequalities, and power dynamics impede children’s equitable access to their rights, which means they require particular care and protection.   Child-friendly justice systems are essential to promoting the rights and well-being of the child. PRI works around the world to promote criminal justice systems which recognise the right of children to special protection, have a minimum age of criminal responsibility of 14 or higher, abolish ‘status offences’ that only criminalise children, and use detention only as a measure of last resort, diverting children away from criminal justice systems wherever possible.   The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child being clear that deprivation of liberty of children should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.   Despite this, however, the UN Global Study on children deprived of liberty in 2019 found that there are at least 410,000 children detained in remand centres and prisons around the world every year, not including an estimated 1 million children held every year in police custody.   Children – even more so than adults – can experience serious and long-lasting consequences as a result of imprisonment. It isolates them from their families and communities, carries great stigma for some children, and a high risk of violence and abuse.   Certain groups of children – including those from the poorest communities, migrant and indigenous communities, ethnic and religious minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, and children with disabilities – are over-represented both in detention and throughout judicial proceedings.   And global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, exacerbate existing injustices suffered by children and further limit their access to justice.   The upcoming World Congress on Justice with Children provides a key opportunity to raise awareness of the risks and barriers faced by children in criminal justice systems, and for professionals, activists and children themselves to exchange learning and best practices to achieve positive change.   Previous Congresses have been held in Lima (2009), Geneva (2015), and most recently in Paris (2018) where nearly 1,000 people from 100 different countries participated in 28 workshops and more than 10 plenary sessions across three days.   Among key outputs were the adoption of the Paris Declaration on Prevention of child involvement in violent extremism, and the establishment of various working groups leading to the publication of papers on the impact of brain science, and on child-friendly policing.   This year, the Congress takes place online, centred on the theme “Ensuring access to justice for all children: towards non-discriminatory and inclusive child justice systems”.   The Congress will bring together children, policymakers, legal practitioners, academics, and civil society representatives to explore best practices, foster cooperation, raise awareness on child-friendly justice and seek to place children’s rights at the top of the international agenda – with the goal of promoting fair and appropriate justice systems for and with children.   The Congress is organised by the Global Initiative on Justice with Children, which is made up of Terre des hommes, Penal Reform International, International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates and the International Institute for the Rights of the Child (IDE).   This year, the Congress is hosted by the Supreme Court of Mexico, with technical support from UNICEF, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, UNODC, OHCHR and OECD.   Over the past two years, regional preparatory meetings and national consultations have been held in North America, Latin America, Lebanon and Singapore, and online in the USA, Pakistan, Central America and Europe.   These meetings provided a platform to discuss and define the main topics and priorities for the Congress. As participants showed particular interest in the child’s right to non-discrimination and equality, this is reflected in many of the themes identified for the Congress, including children from religious and ethnic minorities, LGBTQI children, girls, migrant children, children with disabilities and others.   To address these complex issues, the Congress will largely focus on exchanging promising practices and strategies from diverse contexts and settings that tackle discrimination, prevent youth offending and reduce youth contact with the justice system.   The aims of the Congress are ambitious, but they need to be – and they are achievable. In particular, the 2021 Congress seeks to:   Define a global strategy to accelerate progress towards child-friendly justice with and for children until the next Congress. Foster regional synergies and action plans for the next three years to provide regional roadmaps for implementing the global strategy.   Collect national pledges to reinforce policies and practices that make real differences in the lives of children in contact with the law. Generate a path for action after the plenary sessions and workshops based on the discussion and topics raised.   Now is the time for action. The World Congress on Justice with Children provides a unique opportunity to learn, share, connect, and collaborate to drive real and lasting change in access to justice for children around the world.   http://www.penalreform.org/blog/the-2021-world-congress-on-justice-with-children/ http://justicewithchildren.org/online-2021/online-2021-themes/ http://justicewithchildren.org/online-2021/global-declaration/ http://www.penalreform.org/resource/2021-global-declaration-on-justice-with-children/ http://fxb.harvard.edu/2024/02/12/press-release-research-report-analyzes-healthcare-standards-for-children-deprived-of-their-liberty-in-effort-to-support-the-implementation-of-the-un-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child/ http://fxb.harvard.edu/2024/01/11/press-release-new-report-documents-the-mental-and-physical-harm-experienced-by-children-in-immigration-detention/ Visit the related web page
	The Pandora Papers and the threat to democracy by Gerard Ryle, Katharina Pistor International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, agencies   Oct. 2021   The Pandora Papers investigation lays bare the global entanglement of political power and secretive offshore finance. (ICIJ)   The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents that reveals hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world's rich and powerful.   More than 600 journalists in 117 countries have been investigating the files for months. The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which has been working with more than 140 media organisations on its biggest ever global investigation.   Based upon the most expansive leak of tax haven files in history, the investigation reveals the secret deals and hidden assets of more than 330 politicians and high-level public officials in more than 90 countries and territories, including 35 country leaders. Ambassadors, mayors and ministers, presidential advisers, generals and a central bank governor appear in the files.   The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) obtained confidential information from 14 offshore service providers, enterprises that set up and manage shell companies and trusts in tax havens around the globe.   The files reveal secret offshore holdings of more than 130 billionaires from 45 countries. Other clients include bankers, big political donors, arms dealers, international criminals, pop stars, spy chiefs and sporting giants.   While owning an offshore company is legal, the secrecy it provides can give cover to illicit money flows, enabling bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, terrorism financing and human trafficking and other human rights abuses, experts say.   Poor nations are disproportionately harmed by the stashing of wealth in tax havens, which starves treasuries of funds to pay for roads, schools and hospitals.   The Pandora Papers probe reveals that international leaders who could tackle offshore tax avoidance have themselves secretly moved money and assets beyond the reach of tax and law enforcement authorities as their citizens struggle.   Reporting by ICIJ and its partners challenges the offshore industry’s claims that service providers judiciously vet clients and strive to act within the law, and it highlights the cost to the public interest of letting the rich and powerful shield their wealth from the law.   ICIJ’s publication of Pandora Papers stories comes at a critical moment in a global debate over the fairness of the international tax system, the role of industry professionals in the shadow economy and the failure of governments to stanch the flow of dirty money into hidden companies and trusts.   Why tax havens are problematic:   Here's how offshore companies work: For prices starting at just a few hundred dollars, providers can help clients set up an offshore company whose real owners remain confidential.   Alternatively, for a fee of $2,000 to $25,000, they can set up a trust that, in some instances, allows its beneficiaries to control their money while being not legally responsible for their actions. A bit of paper-shuffling and "creativity" help shield assets from creditors, law enforcement and tax collectors.   Owning offshore companies and conducting financial transactions through these tax havens are perfectly legal in many countries— but the practice has come under scrutiny.   People who use these companies say they are needed to operate their businesses. Many experts however say tax havens and offshore operations must be monitored more closely to fight corruption, money laundering and global inequality.   According to Gabriel Zucman, an expert on tax havens and associate professor of economics at the University of Berkeley in California, the equivalent of 10% of the world's total GDP is held in tax havens globally.   Lakshmi Kumar, policy director at Global Financial Integrity, told ICIJ and affiliated news outlets that when the rich hide money through tax evasion, it has a direct impact on the lives of people. "It affects your child's access to education, access to health, and access to a home," she said.   How much money funnels to tax havens   Because of the complex and secretive nature of the offshore system, it's not possible to know the exact amount of wealth that is linked to tax evasion and other crimes and how much has been reported to authorities.   The total amount of money funneled from countries with higher tax rates into tax havens with significantly lower tax rates is still unknown. However, according to a 2020 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at least $11.3 trillion is held "offshore."   Gerard Ryle, the director of the ICIJ, said leading politicians who organised their finances in tax havens had a stake in the status quo, and were likely to be an obstacle to reform of the offshore economy.   “When you have world leaders, when you have politicians, when you have public officials, all using the secrecy and all using this world, then I don’t think we’re going to see an end to it.”   He expects the Pandora papers to have a greater impact than previous leaks, because they were arriving in the middle of a pandemic that has exacerbated inequalities and led governments to borrow unprecedented amounts to be shouldered by ordinary taxpayers.   At least $11.3tn in wealth is held offshore. “This is money that is being lost to treasuries around the world and money that could be used to recover from Covid,” Ryle said. “We’re losing out because some people are gaining. It’s as simple as that. It’s a very simple transaction that’s going on here.”   The Pandora Papers are expected to yield new revelations for years to come.   http://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/   Oct. 2021   The Pandora Papers and the threat to democracy, by Katharina Pistor. (Project Syndicate, agencies)   In demonstrating how some of the world’s most powerful people hide their wealth, the Pandora Papers have exposed the details of a global system.   The ‘Pandora Papers’, a new investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, has fuelled outrage around the world. Politicians, business people, sports stars and cultural icons have been caught in the act of hiding their wealth and lying about it. But how likely is a reckoning for the lawyers and accountants who helped them?   There is nothing new about the practices the ICIJ’s investigation uncovered. True, the sheer scale, sophistication and legal firepower deployed to allow today’s ultra-rich and powerful to game the law may be newsworthy. But the only truly shocking revelation is that it took more than 600 journalists from around the world to expose these practices, often risking their own safety and professional futures.   The difficulty of that task attests to how well lawyers, legislatures and courts have tilted the law in favor of elites.   To hide their wealth, today’s rich and powerful have availed themselves of centuries-old legal coding strategies. In 1535, King Henry VIII of England cracked down on a legal device known as ‘the use’, because it threatened to undermine existing (feudal) property relations and served as a tax-avoidance vehicle. But thanks to clever legal arbitrage, it was soon replaced by an even more powerful device—‘the trust’.   Legally encoded by solicitors and recognised by courts of equity, the trust remains one of the most ingenious legal tools ever invented for the creation and preservation of private wealth. In the old days, it allowed the wealthy to circumvent inheritance rules.   Today, it is the go-to vehicle for tax avoidance and for structuring financial assets, including asset-backed securities and their derivatives.   Functionally, a trust alters the rights and obligations to an asset without observing the formal rules of property law; it thus creates a shadow property right. Establishing a trust requires an asset—such as land, shares or bonds—and three personae: an owner (settlor), a manager (trustee) and a beneficiary.   The owner transfers legal title (though not necessarily actual possession) over the asset to the trustee, who promises to manage it on behalf of the beneficiary in accordance with the owner’s instructions.   Nobody else needs to know about this arrangement, because there is no requirement to register the title or disclose the identities of the parties. This lack of transparency makes the trust the perfect vehicle for playing hide-and-seek with creditors and tax authorities. And because legal title and economic benefits are split among the three personae, nobody willingly assumes the obligations that come with ownership.   Favoured legal device   The trust became a favoured legal device for global elites not through some invisible hand of the market but rather by purposeful legal design. Lawyers pushed existing legal boundaries, courts recognised and enforced their innovations and then lawmakers (many of them presumably beholden to wealthy donors) codified those practices into statute. As previous restrictions were stripped away, trust law expanded its remit.   These legal changes ensured that an ever-greater array of assets could be held in trust and that the role of the trustee could be delegated to legal persons rather than honorable individuals such as judges.   Moreover, fiduciary duties were curtailed, the trustees’ liability was limited and the lifespan of the trust became increasingly elastic. Together, these legal adaptations made the trust fit for global finance.   Countries which lacked this device were encouraged to emulate it. An international treaty, the 1985 Hague Convention on Trusts, was adopted with this goal in mind.   In countries where lawmakers have resisted the pressure to sanction trusts, lawyers have fashioned equivalent devices from the laws governing foundations, associations or corporations—betting (often correctly) that courts would vindicate their innovations.   Tax and legal arbitrage   While some jurisdictions have gone out of their way to be legally hospitable to private wealth creation, others have tried to crack down on tax and legal arbitrage. But legal restrictions work only if the legislature controls which law is practised within its jurisdiction.   In the age of globalisation, most legislatures have been effectively stripped of such control, because law has become portable. If one country does not have the ‘right’ law, another one might. As long as the place of business recognises and enforces foreign law, the legal and accounting paperwork can be channeled to the friendliest foreign jurisdiction and the deed is done.   National legal systems thus have become items on an international menu of options from which asset holders choose the laws by which they wish to be governed. They don’t need a passport or a visa—all they need is a legal shell.   Assuming a new legal identity in this way, the privileged few can decide how much to pay in taxes and which regulations to endure. And if legal obstacles cannot be overcome quite that easily, lawyers from leading global law firms will draft legislation to make a country compliant with the ‘best practices’ of global finance. Here, tax and trust havens such as South Dakota and the British Virgin Islands offer the gold standard.   The costs of these practices are borne by the least mobile and the insufficiently wealthy. But turning law into a goldmine for the rich and powerful causes harm well beyond the immediate inequities it generates. By potentially undermining the legitimacy of the law, it threatens the very foundation of democratic governance.   The more that wealthy elites and their lawyers insist that everything they do is legal, the less the public will trust the law. Today’s global elites might be able to continue to conjure private wealth from law. But no resource can be mined forever. Once lost, trust in the law will be difficult to regain. The wealthy will have lost their most valuable asset of all.   (c) Project Syndicate   * Katharina Pistor is professor of comparative law at Columbia Law School.   http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/pandora-papers-how-law-shields-wealth-by-katharina-pistor-2021-10 http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2021/pandora-papers-offshore-finance/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/pandora-papers-video-news-icij/ http://socialeurope.eu/the-pandora-papers-and-the-threat-to-democracy http://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/baker-mckenzie-global-law-firm-offshore-tax-dodging/ http://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/15/perspectives/pandora-papers-tax-havens-wealth/index.html http://taxjustice.net/2021/10/03/pandora-papers-shows-transparency-failure-is-an-accountability-failure/ http://taxjustice.net/ Visit the related web page
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