Highlights from the Global Days of Action on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights event: “Towards a Gender-Transformative UN Tax Convention.”

Tax policies shape economies, social structures, and public services, yet they often reinforce gender inequalities instead of reducing them. 

Klelia Guerrero García, Specialist in Tax Justice and Gender at Latindadd and member of Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y el Caribe (RJFALC), shared, “Tax policies are not neutral; they either reinforce inequalities or help to dismantle them. Gender equality in tax systems and public services means building economies that work for everyone. Economies should not only work for the wealthiest or largest corporations, but for all.” 

Women, especially in the Global South, face the brunt of regressive taxation, underfunded care services, and austerity measures that shift the financial burden onto low-income communities and care workers, paid or unpaid. The current global tax system allows corporate tax avoidance, draining resources that could be invested in gender-transformative public services, such as education, healthcare, childcare, eldercare, and social protection.

Everlyn Muendo, Policy Lead for Tax and International Financial Architecture at Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA) outlined the current situation by saying, “Taxation is one of the most sustainable ways to finance countries and development. Women, who disproportionately shoulder the burden of care, are the hardest hit when our countries cannot raise enough resources to deliver adequate public services, including healthcare and education.”

Countries in the Global South have been at the forefront of efforts to create a more inclusive, transparent, and equitable global tax system. The ongoing negotiations for a United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UN Tax Convention) offers a historic opportunity to reshape global tax rules to ensure fairness, transparency, and equity. This process is set to deliver three legally binding agreements by mid-2027: a Framework Convention and two early protocols. The first early protocol covers taxation of income derived from the provision of cross-border services in an increasingly digitised and globalised economy and the second on prevention and resolution of tax disputes. These developments have the potential to positively impact public services and rebuild the social organization of care. However, without gender considerations, tax reforms risk reinforcing the status quo or even deepening existing inequalities.

“If you look at this from a gender perspective, the problem is first of all that among the wealthiest in the world there is an under-representation of women. Secondly, when the rich don’t pay their share of taxes, that results in less funding for public services and because of unpaid care work it’s often the women that have to carry that burden. The third level is that then governments tax whoever can’t run away and that’s for example consumers but when governments use consumption taxes they disproportionately impact women. The UN Tax Convention is a chance to change all this,” summarised Tove Maria Ryding, Tax Coordinator at Eurodad and GATJ Coordinating Committee Member. 

Tove Maria Ryding went on to say, “In August, the UN Tax Convention negotiations begin in New York. Civil society has done a lot of work to clearly elaborate the connection and demands around tax and gender. Now is the time to come and push to get this into the text. As we begin the UN Tax Convention negotiations, the job we have ahead of us now is to mobilize governments for this fight.” 

Panelists discussed the need for gender equality within the makeup of the negotiators in the UN Tax Convention process and, crucially, negotiators who understand their countries commitments on gender equality. 

Lison Rehbinder, Policy and Campaigns Coordinator at the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, said “We see countries promoting feminist diplomacy but doing doublespeak by not supporting the UN Tax Convention which has important implications for gender equality.”

Countries have agreed to address gender inequality in other UN spaces including at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and this commitment to gender equality must carry through in the UN Tax Convention negotiations. 

Other panelists commented upon the need for consistency in countries’ promotion of gender equality. Everlyn Muendo added, “We have this doublespeak, within the draft outcome document on Financing for Development some countries support developing gender-responsive public systems. However, some of these countries do not support a UN Tax Convention. It is important working in these spaces that we do a holistic review. We need negotiators who are women but who also uphold feminist values.”  

Closing the webinar, Lison Rehbinder, shared, “We have an opportunity to change the paradigm with the negotiations for a UN Tax Convention. We have a lot of work going forward in these negotiations but this also provides us with many opportunities.”

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• Join the GDOA activities! The programme and registration for events can be found here.

Contact: 

• To receive the campaign toolkit or share your communications activities contact Alexandra Wenzel (GATJ Comms Coordinator): [email protected]. 
• For more information about the campaign, please send an email to [email protected] (GATJ TGWG & Africa Campaigns Coordinator) cc [email protected]