Caroline Othim and Roosje Saalbrink, the two co-coordinators of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice’s working group on Tax & Gender co-wrote a blog entitled “It’s time to tax for gender justice: Unfair tax systems hit women and girls the hardest. We need to make corporations pay their share”.
The blog was published just one week after the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) convened a High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development (FFD).
“Why do these financing decisions matter to gender equality and women’s rights?”, Othim and Saalbrink ask. “With close to a decade remaining for the curtains to fall on Agenda 2030, this is where states show if they are putting their money where their mouth is and decide where the money for the SDGs is coming from and what actions will be prioritized. Women’s voices go largely unheard in the policy debates dominated by global capital. While States accommodate corporate demands for tax incentives, the needs of women and demands to tax corporations fairly are neglected”.
The authors then explain the impact of tax policies on women’s human rights: “Despite these commitments, austerity measures pushed by international financial institutions (IFIs) have been implemented around the world. Policies include changes to how taxes are collected, privatising public goods, freezing public sector wages, reducing social security and reforming pension systems. Such austerity measures widely impact the enjoyment of social and economic human rights, particularly for women who are the most affected by all forms of tax injustice, the privatisation of public services and unemployment”.
The blog article is part of the Open Democracy ’Advancing Gender Just Economies’ series, co-hosted by ActionAid, FEMNET, Fight Inequality Alliance and Womankind Worldwide.
