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First and Second Substantive negotiating sessions of the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation

First and Second Substantive negotiating sessions of the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation

The proposed United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation's first and second substantive negotiating sessions were held at UN Headquarters in New York from 4 to 15 August 2025. These were the first meetings of a two-year process ending in 2027.

A significant milestone in this process was the 2024 adoption of the Terms of Reference, when States agreed to include ‘alignment with international human rights law’ as a guiding principle for international tax cooperation. This commitment underscores the potential of the treaty to reframe the fight against illicit financial flows, tax evasion and avoidance, and the persistent under-taxation of high-net-worth individuals. It sets the process on a trajectory that could expand States’ fiscal space and strengthen their capacity to realise economic, social, and cultural rights. 

Championed from the outset by the African Union, the Convention represents a rare opportunity to advance a more democratic and egalitarian framework for global tax cooperation: one that includes the perspectives of Global South countries, historically sidelined in developed-country-dominated forums such as the OECD.

In preparation for the August sessions, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) issued technical notes on the three core issues under discussion:

 

  1. The Framework Convention itself (Workstream I)
  2. Additional Protocol N°1 on the ‘taxation of income derived from the provision of cross-border services in an increasingly digitalised and globalised economy’ (Workstream II)
  3. Additional Protocol N°2 on ‘prevention and resolution of tax disputes’ (Workstream III)

 

Bringing Human Rights to the Negotiation Floor

As part of the civil society delegation, our Programme Officer on Economic Justice, Michelle Cañas, delivered a statement onsite at the UN negotiations with regards to Additional Protocol 2 (currently discussed under Workstream III), emphasising the need for a fair, transparent, and inclusive approach to resolving cross-border tax disputes. The Framework Convention must include firm commitments from the outset; otherwise, its implementation risks being undermined by unequal rules and practices. Michelle pointed to cross-border services as an example of how complex rules can fuel disputes, noting that moving towards simpler approaches such as unitary taxation would reduce litigation and help avoid conflicts in the first place. On dispute prevention and resolution, she emphasised that the new protocol should not replicate the shortcomings of current mechanisms, which are costly, opaque, and inaccessible to many developing countries, but instead establish transparent and inclusive processes under the COP, supported by adequate resources. Dispute resolution is essential to the legitimacy of the entire Convention and its ability to strengthen states’ fiscal capacity for human rights and sustainable development.

You can watch Michelle’s entire intervention here, and read our publication analysing dispute settlement mechanisms in the context of the UN Tax Convention here.

 

Our Event:

Who was in the room?

On 4 August 2025, immediately after the opening of negotiations at UN Headquarters, GI-ESCR convened a strategic Global South briefing at Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung’s New York office. State representatives from Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Chile, Spain, and Colombia, alongside civil society and academic experts, attended.

The panel featured:

  • Ezequiel Steuermann, Programme Officer on Economic Justice and Climate Finance, GI-ESCR
  • Tove Maria Ryding, Policy and Advocacy Manager on Tax Justice, EURODAD
  • Sergio Chaparro Hernández, International Policy and Advocacy Lead, Tax Justice Network
  • Everlyn Muendo, Policy Officer on Tax & International Financial Architecture, TJN Africa
  • María Emilia Mamberti, Coordinator, Initiative for Human Rights in Fiscal Policy

The event opened with remarks by David Williams, Director of the International Climate Justice Programme at Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung’s New York Office. It was moderated by Rio Hada, Chief of the Equality, Development and Rule of Law Section at OHCHR New York.

What was at stake?

Discussions underscored that the Convention is more than a technical exercise: it represents a transformative instrument for realising economic, social, and cultural rights, especially in a global environment where trust in institutions is declining, socio-economic pressures are rising, and multilateral frameworks face growing challenges.

Participants highlighted the urgency of advancing ambitious fiscal reforms to expand Global South fiscal space, reinforcing the importance of inclusive, accountable governance that can deliver concrete, shared results. In a context of widespread frustration with ineffective socio-economic governance, a robust, rights-based tax cooperation framework can demonstrate that multilateral solutions bring tangible improvements to people’s lives, strengthen institutional resilience, and preserve the integrity of democratic and participatory systems.

What happened?

The briefing created a space for diverse actors to exchange perspectives, build consensus, and coordinate approaches ahead of negotiations. Discussions drew on GI-ESCR’s technical expertise, particularly insights from its recent publication series International Law at the UN Tax Convention. Building on prior exchanges hosted by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), participants examined how the Convention could function to secure human rights.

A central focus was the link between States’ extraterritorial human rights obligations and ambitious fiscal reforms. Proposals discussed included global beneficial ownership registries, tackling tax evasion and avoidance, and advancing fairer taxation frameworks, particularly targeting high-net-worth individuals. The conversation reinforced cross-regional collaboration on shaping a fair and ambitious global tax system and stressed the need for collective approaches to shared challenges.

 

3 Key Takeaways

 

  1. The Governance Architecture Battle

The most consequential divide emerging from these sessions wasn't tax rates or thresholds but power structures. While Global North States consistently pushed for alignment with existing frameworks and non-duplication with OECD mechanisms, Global South countries issued increasingly pointed warnings about preserving the status quo. Kenya's stark assertion that ‘complementarity’ calls effectively mean maintaining current inequalities revealed a fundamental tension: whether the Convention will genuinely redistribute fiscal authority or merely create a decorative UN space over existing asymmetries. The African Union and CARICOM's emphasis on governance elements, which includes a Conference of the Parties, permanent Secretariat and inclusive decision-making structures, represents a strategic attempt to institutionalise Global South influence. The repeated calls to retain governance provisions in the Framework Convention, rather than relegating them to optional protocols, signal awareness that procedural power determines substantive outcomes.

 

  1. The ‘Optionality’ of Protocols and Provisions, and the Fragmentation Trap

A concerning pattern emerged across all workstreams: the systematic weaponisation of flexibility. The proposal to make key protocols optional, which appeared throughout Global North interventions, seemed reasonable at first glance. Still, its cumulative effect threatens the Convention’s transformative potential. Combined with resistance to binding commitments and emphasis on high-level, non-self-executing language, this strategy is especially harmful because it uses genuine concerns about State sovereignty to justify actions that ultimately maintain existing inequalities. Multiple delegations warned that excessive optionality could weaken the new rules and lead to system fragmentation, but this is an understatement: excessive flexibility means, in practice, that the new regulations will only be applied where they're politically palatable, that is, they will not be applied in the Global North, which eliminates the possibility of a relevant redistribution of taxing rights to the South.

 

  1. A Critical Juncture: Civil Society Participation in the Intersessional Meetings

With workstream leads now tasked with drafting concrete text ahead of Nairobi, the process enters a crucial and potentially opaque phase. Civil society's concerns about exclusion from online intersessionals highlight that a procedural battle is expected to occur, particularly given explicit commitments to inclusive participation in the Terms of Reference. This can determine substantive outcomes. These intersessional consultations, where draft language gets refined and political compromises are tested, have historically been where ambitious multilateral frameworks either gain momentum or lose their transformative edge. The relevance of the procedural conversations held in New York, both regarding the governance structure and on the mandatory or optional character of the Optional Protocols, suggests that what happens between now and November may be determinant to the future of this process. For organisations with technical expertise in human rights and fiscal policy, meaningful participation in these intersessionals is essential to uphold transparency and to prevent the gradual erosion of rights-based commitments through incremental technical adjustments that often escape broader political scrutiny.

 

Next Steps

As negotiations continue toward the expected 2027 outcome, we will maintain an active presence in the process, including the upcoming third session in November in Nairobi, Kenya. We will continue to identify key points of contention where rigorous legal expertise and a human rights-based approach can provide added value to the debates.

Our ‘International Law at the UN Tax Convention’ publication series will also be expanded, delivering robust analysis designed to support State negotiators and other stakeholders in understanding what a genuine alignment between international tax cooperation and human rights law entails.

Building on the promising exchanges in New York, we will continue leveraging our cross-regional and interdisciplinary convening power, facilitating strategic discussions during and between negotiation sessions. Our goal remains to bridge geographic and sectoral silos, foster collaboration and advance an ambitious, Global South-oriented framework for tax cooperation; one that is equipped to address the pressing challenges faced by tax administrations and government officials, such as gaps in transparency, access to information, effective mechanisms to prevent evasion and avoidance and limited fiscal space, while upholding the principles of fairness, equity and human rights to the benefit of global majorities.

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.