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	Institutionalised forced labour in North Korea by United Nations News, agencies Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)   July 2024   The use of forced labour by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) against its citizens has become deeply institutionalised and raises a broad range of serious human rights concerns, according to a report by the UN Human Rights Office released today.   The report is based on various sources, including 183 interviews conducted between 2015 and 2023 with victims and witnesses of forced labour who managed to escape and now live abroad.   “The testimonies in this report give a shocking and distressing insight into the suffering inflicted through forced labour upon people, both in its scale, and in the levels of violence and inhuman treatment,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk.   “These people are forced to work in intolerable conditions – often in dangerous sectors with the absence of pay, free choice, ability to leave, protection, medical care, time off, food and shelter. They are placed under constant surveillance, regularly beaten, while women are exposed to continuing risks of sexual violence,” he said.   “If we didn’t meet the daily quota, we were beaten and our food was cut,” said one victim. Another recalled: “One of my acquaintances, who was a woman and older than me, was sexually abused by one of the heads. She suffered.”   The report looks at six distinct types of forced labour: labour in detention, compulsory State-assigned jobs, military conscription, the use of revolutionary “Shock Brigades”, work mobilisations and work performed by people sent abroad by the DPRK to earn currency for the State.   The report concludes that people in North Korea are “controlled and exploited through an extensive and multi-layered system of forced labour” that is “directed towards the interests of the State rather than the people.” The system “acts as a means for the State to control, monitor and indoctrinate the population,” the report says.   Most serious concerns arise particularly in places of detention, where forced labour victims are systematically compelled to work under the threat of physical violence and in inhumane conditions. Within this context, given the almost total control by the State over the civilian population of detainees, the widespread extraction of forced labour in DPRK prisons may in some instances reach degrees of effective “ownership” over individuals which are characteristic of enslavement, a crime against humanity, the report says.   After completing school or military service, every North Korean is assigned to a workplace by the State. This also dictates where people must live. The absence of free choice of work, the lack of ability to form trade unions, the threat of imprisonment for failure to attend work and the continuous non-payment of wages paint a picture of institutionalised forced labour in the country, according to the report.   Military conscripts, required to serve 10 years or more, are routinely forced to work in agriculture or construction. The report describes their work as “hard and dangerous, without adequate health and safety measures”.   “Most soldiers with malnourishment also came down with tuberculosis, since they were physically weak and tired,” said a former nurse, who treated soldiers during her compulsory service time.   Other forms of mobilisation include “Shock Brigades”, which are State-organised groups of citizens forced to carry out “arduous manual labour”, often in construction and agriculture, says the report. A project could last for months or even years, during which workers are required to live on site, with little or no remuneration. Being drafted into work mobilisations has a greater impact on women who are often the main income earners for families, the report says.   The Government of the DPRK also sends selected citizens overseas to work and earn foreign currency for it. Workers reported losing up to 90 per cent of their wages to the State, being under constant surveillance, with no freedom of movement, their passports confiscated, cramped living quarters, almost no time off, and extremely limited possibilities to contact their families.   This institutionalised labour system starts at school, the report finds. Schoolchildren are often forced to do work like clearing riversides or planting trees. “From an early age, you have to make yourself available to serve,” a witness said.   The report calls on the North Korean Government to “abolish the use of forced labour and end any forms of slavery”.   To ensure accountability, the report urges the international community to investigate and prosecute those suspected of committing international crimes. It also calls on the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.   “Economic prosperity should serve people, not be the reason for their enslavement,” the High Commissioner said. “Decent work, free choice, freedom from violence, and just and favourable conditions of work are all crucial components of the right to work. They must be respected and fulfilled, in all parts of society,” he added.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/07/1152146 http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/institutionalised-forced-labour-north-korea-constitutes-grave-violations http://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-peoples-republic-korea/report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-democratic-peoples-republic-korea-elizabeth-salmon-ahrc5865-enarruzh   Mar. 2024   Forced labour in the private economy generates US$236 billion in illegal profits per year, a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) has found.   The total amount of illegal profits from forced labour has risen by US$64 billion (37 per cent) since 2014, a dramatic increase that has been fuelled by both a growth in the number of people forced into labour, as well as higher profits generated from the exploitation of victims.   The ILO report, Profits and Poverty: The economics of forced labour, estimates that traffickers and criminals are generating close to US$10,000 per victim, up from US$8,269 (adjusted for inflation) a decade ago.   Total annual illegal profits from forced labour are highest in Europe and Central Asia (US$84 billion), followed by Asia and the Pacific (US$62 billion), the Americas (US$52 billion), Africa (US$20 billion), and the Arab States (US$18 billion).   When illegal profits are expressed per victim, annual illegal profits are highest in Europe and Central Asia, followed by the Arab States, the Americas, Africa and Asia and the Pacific.   Forced commercial sexual exploitation accounts for more than two-thirds (73 per cent) of the total illegal profits, despite accounting for only 27 per cent of the total number of victims in privately imposed labour.   These numbers are explained by the huge difference in per victim profits between forced commercial sexual exploitation and other forms of non-state forced labour exploitation – US$27,252 profits per victim for the former against US$3,687 profits per victim for the latter.   After forced commercial sexual exploitation, the sector with the highest annual illegal profits from forced labour is industry, at US$35 billion, followed by services (US$20.8 billion), agriculture (US$5.0 billion), and domestic work (US$2.6 billion). These illegal profits are the wages that rightfully belong in the pockets of workers but instead remain in the hands of their exploiters, as a result of their coercive practices.   There were 27.6 million people engaged in forced labour on any given day in 2021. This figure translates to 3.5 people for every thousand people in the world. Between 2016 and 2021 the number of people in forced labour increased by 2.7 million.   “People in forced labour are subject to multiple forms of coercion, the deliberate and systematic withholding of wages being amongst the most common. Forced labour perpetuates cycles of poverty and exploitation and strikes at the heart of human dignity. We now know that the situation has only got worse. The international community must urgently come together to take action to end this injustice, safeguard workers' rights, and uphold the principles of fairness and equality for all,” stated ILO Director-General, Gilbert F. Houngbo.   The report stresses the urgent need for investment in enforcement measures to stem illegal profit flows and hold perpetrators accountable.   It recommends strengthening legal frameworks, providing training for enforcement officials extending labour inspection into high-risk sectors, and better coordination between labour and criminal law enforcement.   Yet forced labour cannot be ended through law enforcement measures alone, enforcement actions must be part of a comprehensive approach that prioritizes addressing root causes and safeguarding victims, underlines the report.   The Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 , and the Forced Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014 (No. 203) provide a strategic framework for comprehensive action.   * Note the ILO figures are considered a very conservative estimation of the true scale of the realities.   http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_920143/lang--en/index.htm http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm http://www.ilo.org/publications/major-publications/profits-and-poverty-economics-forced-labour http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2023/12/un-experts-urge-shift-towards-human-rights-economy-prevent-contemporary-forms http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-slavery http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-trafficking-in-persons http://apnews.com/hub/forced-labor http://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/ http://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/forced-labour/   http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2024/December/unodc-global-human-trafficking-report_-detected-victims-up-25-per-cent-as-more-children-are-exploited-and-forced-labour-cases-spike.html http://www.icij.org/investigations/trafficking-inc/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/trafficking-inc/about-trafficking-inc/ http://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/the-wage-slaves-of-the-kafala-system/ http://www.iom.int/news/50-million-people-worldwide-modern-slavery http://www.ituc-csi.org/modern-slavery-figures-2022 http://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2022/09/special-rapporteur-right-development-covid-19-pandemic-triggered-largest-global Visit the related web page
	Tax is one of the most important levers that a government has to reduce economic inequality by Amitabh Behar, Gabriel Zucman Tax Justice Network, EU Tax Observatory, agencies   Aug. 2024   G20 Leaders must listen to their people and agree to tax the rich, by Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam international   We are living in a world of multiple crises of inequality, climate breakdown and conflict. Billions of people globally are facing huge hardship. Whole governments, too, are virtually bankrupt, with extremely high debt levels forcing them to implement brutal and deeply unpopular cuts and tax rises for ordinary people. 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt interest payments than on either education or health.   For the first time in 25 years, we have seen extreme wealth and extreme poverty increase simultaneously. The world’s five richest men doubled their fortunes since 2020 while five billion people have been made poorer.   In his 2023 SDG Progress Report, the United Nations Secretary-General announced that the sustainable development goal (SDG) which tracks inequality is one of the worst performing.   Tax is one of the most important levers that a government has at its disposal to reduce economic inequality and generate revenue for governments to spend on policies that reduce inequality. Historically, taxation of the ultra-rich has helped to create more equal societies and prevent an extreme gulf from emerging between the haves and the have-nots.   However, in the decades prior to the pandemic, progressive taxation collapsed. The ultra-rich and corporations have been favoured with low-tax regimes, while taxes on billions of ordinary people have increased.   Billionaires are paying tax rates as little as 0.5% on their immense wealth, a fraction of that paid by teachers or nurses. Meanwhile, billionaire fortunes are rising at an annual average of 7% over the past four decades –far faster than the wealth of ordinary people.   The call for increased taxation on the ultra-rich is gaining momentum. For the first time in its history, in June, G7 leaders committed to working together to increase progressive taxation.   Under the Brazilian G20 Presidency in July, G20 Finance Ministers committed for first time ever to cooperate on taxing ultra hight net wealth individuals more effectively. Oxfam strongly supports the Brazilian G20 Presidency’s initiative to set a global standard on taxing the super-rich.   At the G20 Summit in November this year, leaders need to go further than their finance ministers and back concrete coordination: agreeing on a new global deal to tax the ultra-rich at a rate high enough to close the gap between them and the rest of us. Political leaders are waking up to this being a very popular policy; even wealthy individuals support higher taxes on themselves.   Nearly three-quarters of millionaires in G20 countries support higher taxes on wealth. Greater taxation of the world’s richest individuals is not the only answer to the inequality crisis, but it is a fundamental part of it.   A one-off solidarity wealth tax and windfall taxes would raise funds that can be directed to provision of public goods. It is feasible to make these progressive changes.   Italy was one of the first countries to impose a windfall tax, and after WW2 the French government taxed excessive wartime wealth at a rate of 100%. A similar level of ambition is needed today.   Further, governments should permanently increase taxes on the richest 1%, for example to at least 60% of their income from labour and capital, with higher rates for multi-millionaires and billionaires. They must especially raise taxes on capital gains, which are subject to lower tax rates than other forms of income.   Permanent taxation of wealth that rebalances the taxation of capital and labour can greatly reduce inequality, as well as tackle the disproportionate political power and the outsized carbon emissions of the super-wealthy.   We need to see the wealth of the richest 1% taxed at rates high enough to significantly reduce the numbers and wealth of the richest people and redistribute these resources.   This includes implementing inheritance, property and land taxes, as well as net wealth taxes.   Half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants. They will pass on a $5 trillion tax-free treasure chest to their heirs – which is more than the GDP of Africa—beginning the next generation of aristocratic elites.   Above all, we want to see a shift in imagination from governments. A reckoning that more of the same — more billionaire wealth, and a deeper plunge into a cost-of-survival crisis — is the definition of insanity and more suffering for billions of people. We need to heed the evidence, but also look to history, and what ordinary people are calling for around the world.   Closing tax loopholes and ensuring that the richest pay their fair share would reduce inequality and raise trillions of dollars urgently needed to stop climate breakdown and invest in fairer societies for everyone.   It would put people and planet before the needs of a rich few. The time has come for governments to shake off decades of failed ideology and rich elite influence, and to do the right thing: tax the ultra-rich.   http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/top-1-percent-bags-over-40-trillion-new-wealth-during-past-decade-taxes-rich-reach http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/inequality-inc http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-bag-nearly-twice-much-wealth-rest-world-put-together-over-past-two-years http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/inequality-kills   Aug. 2024   Countries can raise $2 trillion by copying Spain’s wealth tax. (Tax Justice Network)   Countries can raise $2.1 trillion a year by following the example of Spain’s successful wealth tax on the 0.5% richest households – that’s double the amount needed annually for developing countries’ external climate finance, expected to be at the centre of COP29 negotiations this year.   The new study from the Tax Justice Network published today, estimates how much revenue each country can individually raise by taxing the wealth of only the richest 0.5% of its households at a feather-light rate of 1.7% to 3.5%. The wealth tax would only apply to the upper crust of the households’ wealth rather than all their wealth.   While the study replicates the approach of the Spanish wealth tax for each country, the study extends the tax to all classes of wealth in its modelling. This removes some exemptions within the Spanish law which weaken its impact. The study finds that on average each country could raise the equivalent of 7% of its spending budget.   The study documents that previous tax reforms targeting the superrich did not result in the superrich relocating to other countries, despite media headlines claiming the contrary.   Just 0.01% of the richest households relocated after wealth tax reforms targeting the richest households were implemented in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. A UK study predicts that non-dom status reforms would see a migration rate of between just 0.02% and a maximum of 3.2%.   The study’s estimates on how much tax countries can raise with wealth taxes conservatively assumes that such a migration rate of 3.2% would occur.   Two-tier treatment of wealth is making economies insecure   The huge sums to be raised from the modest wealth tax are possible due to the extreme levels of wealth collected by the very richest. The study finds that on average, in each country, just 3% of all wealth is owned by half the population, while the richest 0.5% own a quarter (25.7%) of the wealth.   This extreme wealth among the superrich, the report documents, is making economies insecure and is directly linked to lower economic productivity; to non-rich households having to spend more than they bring in; and to poorer societal outcomes such as worse educational attainment and shorter lifespans.   The root of the problem is the two-tier treatment of collected wealth and earned wealth, the Tax Justice Network argues. Collected wealth – ie dividends, capital gains and rent gained from owning things – is typically taxed at far lower rates than earned wealth – ie salaries gained by working. At the same time, collected wealth typically grows faster than earned wealth. Today, only half of the wealth created around the world each year goes to people who earn for a living – the rest is collected as rent, interest, dividends and capital gains.   While the superrich might work and have jobs, virtually all their wealth comes from owning business and real estate empires, not from working in those empires. Any work salaries they might earn are a drop in their wealth bucket.   Three out of the five richest men on Forbes’ Billionaire List 2024 earn $1 salaries: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Elison. According to a 2011 study, the average “$1 CEO” gives up $610k in salary but gains $2m in other ownership-based compensation.   The two-tier treatment has produced extreme results when it comes to the very richest individuals. Billionaires tend to pay tax rates that are just half the rates paid by the rest of society.13 And their wealth grows at twice the rate as that of the rest of society. This has contributed to the wealth of the 0.0001% quadrupling since 1987, to the detriment of economies, societies and planet.   Crucially, the extreme accumulation of wealth doesn’t just create extreme imbalances that have harmful consequences, it renders that accumulated wealth less economically productive – for example by diverting disproportionally more wealth towards speculative derivatives instead of goods and services in the “real” economy.   The Tax Justice Network’s spokesperson attributes this to “why the world might not feel any richer today despite there being more wealth than ever before.”   The two-tier treatment of how people gain wealth amplifies this trend. By enabling collected wealth to dramatically outpace earned wealth, the two-tier treatment nudges wealth towards forms that are less productive and are out of the reach of wealth earners, while increasing indebtedness among non-rich households.   The Tax Justice Network is calling on governments to put an end to the two-tier treatment of wealth by introducing wealth taxes. The report provides countries with detailed guidance on how to implement wealth tax laws modelled in the study and based on Spain’s example.   Mark Bou Mansour, at the Tax Justice Network, said:   “Our economies were designed to let people earn the wealth they need to lead secure and comfortable lives, but our tax rules make it easier for the superrich to collect wealth than for the rest of us to earn it. This has let the superrich collect extreme wealth to the point of making our economies insecure and making it scarcely pay to earn a living.   “There’s this idea that billionaires earn wealth like everybody else, they’re just better at it. This is bogus. It’s impossible to earn a billion dollars. The average US worker would have to work for a stretch of time 13 times longer than humans have existed to earn as much as wealth as the world’s richest man has today.   Salaries don’t make billionaires, dividends and rent money do. But we tax dividends and rent money much less than we tax salaries, and this is destabilising the earner model our economies are based on.   “By definition, a billionaire owns more wealth than an average US household could spend in 10,000 years. Wealth contributes a lot less to the economy than it can when it’s pharaoh-tombed like this, making economies poorer than the sum of their parts.   “To make our economies secure and protect the earner way of life that has defined the modern era, we need wealth taxes that end the two-tier treatment of wealth.”   Governments must act on huge public demand for wealth taxes   Recent polling shows overwhelming public support for wealth taxes on the superrich in several countries. A 68% majority of adults across 17 G20 countries are in favour of wealthy people paying a higher tax on their wealth as a means of funding major changes to the economy and lifestyles. Nearly three quarters of millionaires polled in G20 countries support higher taxes on wealth and over half of them think extreme wealth is a “threat to democracy”.   The G20’s recent proposal for a 2% minimum wealth tax on billionaires has been positively received by policymakers and campaigners alike. Designed to replicate the planned global minimum corporate tax rate, the G20’s proposal will require most countries to come on board or an international agreement to be put in place. Meanwhile, countries can domestically proceed and follow the example of Spain’s wealth tax law today.   While the G20 wealth tax proposal’s targeting of billionaires will primarily address the most extreme wealth concentrations in rich countries, following suit on Spain’s wealth tax law which more widely targets the 0.5% will allow all countries to tackle extreme wealth concentration in their economies.   The success of any wealth tax proposal ultimately depends on countries cooperating on tax transparency. While warnings of the superrich relocating in response to wealth taxes have proven to be unfounded, the superrich’s ability to use secrecy jurisdictions and financial secrecy to hide their wealth from tax administrations can keep wealth taxes from being fully effective.   To make wealth taxes truly effective, countries must make sure the UN tax convention22 currently being negotiated delivers robust tax transparency standards, the Tax Justice Network explains.   Alison Schultz, research fellow at the Tax Justice Network and one of the report’s authors, said:   “The vast majority of countries are currently working on what can be the biggest shakeup in history to global tax rules, to end the scourge of global tax abuse by multinational corporations and the superrich. But a minority of rich countries still seem to be holding back from support for a robust framework convention on tax – despite this being the best opportunity that we’ve ever had, and one that their own people demand they act on with urgency.   Some of the same countries are blocking real progress on climate COP29 – stopping the world from clawing back trillions in tax from tax havens in one meeting, and then claiming in the other meeting that there’s no money for the climate crisis. This needs to change now – the climate can’t wait, and nor can the people of the world.”   http://taxjustice.net/press/countries-can-raise-2-trillion-by-copying-spains-wealth-tax-study-finds/   June 2024   A blueprint for a coordinated minimum effective taxation standard for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, by Gabriel Zucman. (EU Tax Observatory)   This report presents a proposal for an internationally coordinated standard ensuring an effective taxation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals. In the baseline proposal, individuals with more than $1 billion in wealth would be required to pay a minimum amount of tax annually, equal to 2% of their wealth. This standard could be flexibly implemented by participating countries through a variety of domestic instruments, including a presumptive income tax, an income tax on a broad notion of income, or a wealth tax.   The report presents evidence that contemporary tax systems fail to tax ultra-high-net-worth individuals effectively, clarifies the case for international coordination to address this issue, analyzes implementation challenges, and provides revenue estimations.   The main conclusions are that (i) building on recent progress in international tax cooperation, such a common standard has become technically feasible; (ii) it could be enforced successfully even if all countries did not adopt it, by strengthening current exit taxes and implementing “tax collector of last resort” mechanisms as in the coordinated minimum tax on multinational companies;   (iii) a minimum tax on billionaires equal to 2% of their wealth would raise $200-$250 billion per year globally from about 3,000 taxpayers; extending the tax to centimillionaires would add $100-$140 billion; (iv) this international standard would effectively address regressive features of contemporary tax systems at the top of the wealth distribution;   (v) it would not substitute for, but support domestic progressive tax policies, by improving transparency about top-end wealth, reducing incentives to engage in tax avoidance, and preventing a race to the bottom; (vi) its economic impact must be assessed in light of the observed pre-tax rate of return to wealth for ultra-high-net-worth individuals which has been 7.5% on average per year (net of inflation) over the last four decades, and of the current effective tax rate of billionaires, equivalent to 0.3% of their wealth.   http://www.taxobservatory.eu/publication/a-blueprint-for-a-coordinated-minimum-effective-taxation-standard-for-ultra-high-net-worth-individuals/ http://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/report-g20.pdf http://www.icrict.com/international-tax-reform/g20-must-go-further-in-fight-to-tax-the-rich/ http://www.icrict.com/international-tax-reform/a-minimum-tax-on-the-super-rich/ http://www.taxobservatory.eu/publication/global-tax-evasion-report-2024/ http://www.taxobservatory.eu/www-site/uploads/2023/10/global_tax_evasion_report_24.pdf http://atlas-offshore.world/ http://taxjustice.net/press/g20-blueprint-adds-to-growing-wealth-tax-momentum/ http://taxjustice.net/press/countries-can-raise-2-trillion-by-copying-spains-wealth-tax-study-finds/ http://taxjustice.net/press/un-agrees-plan-for-wealth-tax-law-blueprint http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/09/turk-urges-support-global-tax-cooperation-talks   http://gfintegrity.org/dismantle-the-global-financial-secrecy-system/ http://gcap.global/news/gcap-leads-civil-society-effort-for-robust-un-framework-on-international-tax-cooperation http://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/how-to-tax-the-ultra-rich-g20-proposal-vs-the-tools-at-hand/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/wealthy-countries-push-back-as-un-moves-ahead-with-global-tax-plan/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/top-eu-court-rules-apple-owes-ireland-over-14b-in-back-taxes/ http://www.icij.org/news/2024/10/after-a-deloitte-clients-2-4-billion-tax-dodge-faultered-the-accounting-giant-wont-say-if-it-helped-others-exploit-the-same-loophole/ http://www.icij.org/   Mar. 2024   The Forbes 2024 Billionaires list reports that the number of worldwide billionaires grew by 141 in the past year, with 2,781 people holding wealth that exceeds $1 billion. These people own combined assets of $14.2 trillion, exceeding the gross domestic product of every country in the world except the U.S. and China.   Their collective wealth has risen by 120% in the past decade, at the same time as billions of people across the world have seen their living standards decrease in the face of inflation and the cost of living crisis.   “It’s been an amazing year for the world’s richest people, with more billionaires around the world than ever before,” said Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes’ wealth editor. “Even during times of financial uncertainty for many, the super-rich continue to thrive.”   Luke Hildyard, the executive director for the High Pay Centre thinktank, said: “The billionaire list is essentially an annual calculation of how much of the wealth created by the global economy is captured by a tiny caste of oligarchs rather than being used to benefit humanity as a whole. It should be the most urgent mission to spread this wealth more evenly.”   While the global population is "living through incredibly unequal times, lurching from one crisis to the next," says Robert Palmer, executive director of Tax Justice U.K., the richest people in the world amass "extraordinary levels of wealth."   "World leaders need to ensure the super rich are paying their fair share, for example through introducing wealth taxes. This would help provide the resources needed to tackle multiple crises from hunger, to inequality and climate change." Visit the related web page
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