A Fairer Tax System is a Global Human Rights Imperative
Diplomats from dozens of countries gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, in November for a new round of negotiations on a United Nations treaty for international tax cooperation. The scene itself is important: representatives from across the globe meeting in an African capital, under the UN’s auspices, to shape economic rules that would govern a key aspect of the global economy. Unlike when many aspects of the current regime were hammered out, this time, all countries have an equal seat at the table.
Much of the international tax system was designed more than a century ago, for a world dominated by colonial powers and where today’s globalized and digitized economies were unimaginable. Since its founding in 1960, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of wealthy nations, has taken on the role as the dominant forum for global tax negotiating.
Around the world, economic inequality is fueling both the rise of authoritarianism and protesters going to the streets to demand change. Tax policy is inextricably bound up with those issues. Indeed, it was Kenyans who sparked the wave of “Gen-Z” protests in 2024, protesting a tax bill that would have filled budget gaps by, for example, taxing menstrual products and mobile money transfers used by informal workers.
Rules for cross-border taxation set out in the 1920s and fine-tuned by the OECD form the basis of thousands of bilateral tax agreements between countries. Companies and individuals exploit their loopholes with ease, often contributing little or nothing in taxes even as they amass fortunes larger than many governments’ budgets.
