On 16 August 2024, the Ad Hoc Committee in charge of drafting the terms of reference of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation adopted a final version of the text. 

This marks a momentous occasion since, under UNGA Res. A/78/230 f, such committee had a mandate to define the scope on which intergovernmental discussions at the United Nations on ways to strengthen tax cooperation's inclusiveness and effectiveness through developing a legally binding convention should be based.

In compliance with the demands raised by civil society organisations, including GI-ESCR, human rights considerations have been explicitly included in the terms of reference, highlighting a significant milestone for the global fight for economic justice. 

The adopted text explicitly states, under its principles section, that efforts to achieve the objectives of the framework convention should, in the pursuit of international tax cooperation, be aligned with States' obligations under international human rights law. Such commitments include the mobilisation of the maximum available resources for the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights, thereby highlighting the need for the future convention to serve as a tool by which to amplify the fiscal space that States can rely upon to finance public policies with a rights-centred approach. 

Issues such as the relocation of taxing rights, the fight against fiscal evasion and elusion, and the necessity to effectively combat illicit financial flows all form part of the terms of reference of the future convention. Therefore, it provides concrete tools by which States can raise additional public revenue to amplify resource availability and, through their appropriate allocation under human rights priorities, comply with their international human rights obligations financing essential public services such as health and education, as well as the adaptation and mitigation measures needed to ensure a just climate transition. 

In the next two years, the negotiations of the UN Framework Convention on Tax Cooperation should ensure that the content of the convention itself lives up to expectations raised by the ambitious terms of reference that were recently adopted. Building regional alliances -such as the one achieved through the Fiscal Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC)- will provide fundamental spaces to articulate common positions based on a human rights understanding of fiscal policy. 

The negotiation of the terms of reference also highlighted the need to enhance South-South collaboration to find synergic positions between the African and Latin-American regions based on the shared need to amplify fiscal spaces genuinely and sustainably to ensure the necessary funding of human rights-compliant public policies. 

As we move to negotiating the text of the Framework Convention, civil society's participation in all debates alongside other relevant stakeholders should be actively guaranteed. This would provide opportunities not only for attending the negotiations but also for timely substantive interventions.