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7 - Global Tax Justice and Human Rights

from Part II - Causes and Consequences of Economic Inequalities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2021

By
Alex Cobham ,
Fariya Mohiuddin  and
Liz Nelson
Edited by
Gillian MacNaughton ,
Diane Frey  and
Catherine Porter
Gillian MacNaughton
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Boston
Diane Frey
Affiliation:
San Francisco State University
Catherine Porter
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
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Summary

Economic inequalities, the gaps in wealth and income between rich and poor, have become a prevailing issue of current times. Data on extremes of wealth and income have drawn penetrating media investigations into the ultra-wealthy, on financial secrecy and the astronomical executive pay awards of global transnational companies. The widening divide between the top and bottom of the income and wealth distribution has been publicly recorded in exposés such as the Paradise Papers, which have brought the role of taxation policy and regulation under new scrutiny (ICIJ 2017). Civil society has added to the literature scrutinizing economic inequalities and the increasing scale of the gap between wealth and poverty (Oxfam 2017). Such extremes of wealth and the insight they can provide on economic inequalities demand a deeper examination of the role that tax can play in making a positive impact on social and economic inequalities and on social and economic rights (Freire 2018). These fundamental rights to health, education, social mobility, and employment opportunity are enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (1966, Article 2.1).

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Chapter
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Human Rights and Economic Inequalities , pp. 168 - 192
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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