LWF and partners applaud steps towards establishment of a legally binding global tax convention to save billions of dollars in lost revenues for development, social and environmental protection
LWF and partners applaud steps towards establishment of a legally binding global tax convention to save billions of dollars in lost revenues for development, social and environmental protection. Photo: Katt Yukawa via Unsplash
Christian organizations urge UN member states to place common good at heart of General Assembly discussions
(LWI) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has joined with ecumenical partners in welcoming progress at the United Nations towards the establishment of a legally binding global tax convention. In a letter to the president of the UN General Assembly, the Christian organizations say such a convention is vital to foster “equity, sustainability and peace” by providing a fairer distribution of the world’s wealth and social protection.
In the letter, the LWF and partners, the World Council of Churches, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the World Methodist Council and the Council for World Mission, urge the UN to consider proposals that their organizations have been making for many years through the ‘ZacTax’ campaign. This includes a call for the enactment of progressive wealth taxes, financial transaction taxes and carbon or pollution taxes.
Noting that every year, “nearly USD 500 billion in tax revenues is lost to international corporate tax abuse and private tax evasion,” the letter says the current “profit-driven” international financial system is “aggravating inequalities and damaging our increasingly fragile eco-systems.”
Prospects of a multi-lateral convention to stop tax abuse is a sign of hope in these times of multi-crises.
LWF Thirteenth Assembly public statement on tax justice
The signatories to the letter add that, together, they represent over 600 million Christians in 120 countries. Their appeal echoes a public statement made by the LWF at its recent Thirteenth Assembly in Krakow, Poland, which noted that the “prospects of a multi-lateral convention to stop tax abuse is a sign of hope in these times of multi-crises.”
The letter concludes by urging UN member states to “place impoverished communities, the common good and our only planetary home at the centre of the UNGA discussions and that the outcomes [….] will contribute towards global reparation, restoration and resiliency in a time of polycrisis.”
Negotiations on a draft resolution to begin drawing up a global tax convention are due to begin early next year, if the resolution is adopted at an upcoming vote at the General Assembly in November.
