Social Watch news

The importance of international—or even better, global—cooperation on tax issues is becoming more and more evident in the light of tax evasion and avoidance scandals during the last few months and years. Countries in the global North and South were shown to offer preferential treatment to foreigners—from Panama to Luxemburg from the Cayman Islands to Hong Kong. Individuals as well as huge transnational corporations are using a fragmented and inconsistently regulated global system of trans-border taxation to evade and/or avoid taxes. The sums lost amount to hundreds of billions annually. Depending on the model of estimation, developing countries are losing more than one trillion US dollars per year in illicit financial flows, the majority of which can be attributed to the abuse of transfer pricing rules. A panel of the UN Economic Commission for Africa chaired by former South African president Thabo Mbeki estimates the losses of Africa alone at approximately 50 billion US dollars per year. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) puts global revenue losses from Base Erosion and Profit Shifting at an annual 100 to 240 billion US dollars.

At their first meeting since the Paris climate summit, Ministers and representatives from Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) reiterated the importance of raising pre-2020 actions in building trust amongst the Parties to pave the way for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The ministers noted with concern the pending ratification by many Annex I Parties (developed countries) of the Doha Amendment which established the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2013-2020), urging Annex I Parties to both ratify and revisit their pledges of Quantified Emission Limitation and Reduction Objectives to close the emission gap.

During the session on “accountability and transparency of multi-stakeholder partnerships” held in the framework of the Partnership Forum at the UN, Barbara Adams from Global Policy Forum and Social Watch said that partnerships are based in a win-win dynamic but there is a need to understand of what is "win-win".

Would be beneficiaries of such initiatives have to be included, she argued. "We need to look and see how the contribution of partnerships has benefits. We need a more systemic approach when we are looking at the win-win approach".

Freedom of association is an enabling right that underpins inclusive development. The social movements that have flooded the streets of the Arab Spring have the potential to democratize the state and secure democratic transition. However, what Europe calls "Southern Neighbouring" countries are recording alarming shrinking space for civil society, violations of freedom of association and peaceful assembly, coupled with restrictions of the right to access to information and challenges in mobilizing financial resources.