Do you know how much your government collects in taxes? How much are wealth and incomes taxed, as opposed to wages or consumption? Does the government gather information on the share of taxes paid by different social groups (e.g. women/men, rural/urban, different ethnic groups)? Is the revenue collected enough to raise adequate resources for the realization of human rights?
Is your government party to investment or trade agreements that curtail its capacity to collect taxes?
Are human rights and gender equality impact assessments conducted in relation to budget planning and execution? Is the data collected disaggregated by sex, age, income, location, ethnicity, disability and other relevant criteria?

Consistent with the Millennium Declaration’s recognition that all States “have a collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level,” Millennium Development Goal 8 (“MDG 8” or “Goal 8”) contains a number of specific commitments on the sort of international cooperation required on areas such as aid, trade and debt.

But how much did MDG 8 respond to human rights imperatives and how far did its implementation go in promoting human rights? What historical and legal trends were the backdrop to MDG 8 and what hope can we bear for the future as the international community evaluates a potentially new generation of development goals?

As Egypt’s political crisis continues, its government will be asked to account to the United Nations for what has been done to address the social injustices which fuelled the revolution.

On November 14, Egypt will appear before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva, where it will be required to demonstrate how it has taken into account its human rights obligations as a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in navigating the country´s turbulent transition. This will mark the first time that Egypt has come before a UN human rights treaty body since the 2011 revolution.

South Centre presents its view on the Post-2015 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development.

The United Nations’ Post-2015 Development Agenda should not simply extend MDGs, or reformulate the goals, but focus instead on global systemic reforms to remove main impediments to development and secure an accommodating international environment for sustainable development.  This is a big, ambitious agenda which cannot be acted on overnight. An action plan for systemic reforms could be supplemented, but not substituted, by specific goals in some areas of economic and social development.

Photo. EquityBD.

Right based civil society networks in cooperation with different students’ cultural organizations of Dhaka University organize a seminar at the Nowab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building and a photo exhibition at the Teacher Student Centre (TSC) in Dhaka University. The vice chancellor of the university Mr. A A M S Arefin Siddique inaugurates the photo exhibition.