(PHOTO CREDITS: Global Alliance for Tax Justice)
It’s time to put a sharp gender lens on taxation policies and practices and implement tax justice measures that will ensure greater gender equality. And it’s time we made our civil society voices heard for this demand!
By Dereje Alemayehu and Alvin Mosioma
Every year at this time, our members in the five continents carry out different activities to explain how tax justice can finance gender equality, while official delegates discuss women’s rights at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW).
This year, UN member states were to review the ambitious engagements taken towards women’s rights, in Beijing 25 years ago. It was planned to address the critical issue that not a single country has reached gender equality since Beijing. Understandably, due to public health concerns occasioned by the outbreak of the coronavirus, the much-awaited UNCSW was postponed. The whole event was shortened to a one-day ‘procedural’ meeting on March 9th.
This happened just when activists were readying to head to NYC to challenge UNCSW not to limit itself to rhetoric and lamentations when dealing with the lagging behind of each member state in progress towards gender equality and to address the elephant in the room – the financing of women’s rights!
