This event is invitation only. If you are interested in attending, email Nikki Reisch at nikki.reisch@nyu.edu. The number of participants will be limited to 25, to allow for real dialogue, exchange and personalized learning. Those interested in attending will be asked to send a short expression of interest and fill in a short needs assessment form by Monday March 2nd.

During the past few years, the linkages between tax justice and human rights, including women’s rights, have gained unprecedented recognition. Activists around the world are seizing on this heightened awareness to ensure these issues feature strongly in their advocacy to accelerate progress towards gender equality. At the global level, with the Sustainable Development Goals and Financing for Development negotiations in 2015, there is a unique opportunity to put tax justice and gender equality on the agenda that will shape development for the next thirty years. The Beijing+20 review and the 48th session of the Commission on Population & Development will also provide important entry points for these debates.

Tax policies and practices have a profound impact on the extent to which women are able to realize their rights and on progress towards gender equality. How much tax is collected, in what ways, and from whom, affect women’s income and economic security, the accessibility and quality of the services they rely on, and their social status. However, many women’s rights activists lack information to address these issues, which are often perceived to be technical and complex. At the same time, civil society experts in issues of tax and financing for development often lack awareness of their gender dimensions. This means that opportunities for strong, coordinated advocacy are lost at every level, whether local, national, regional, or global.

This workshop aims to:

• Provide participants with an understanding of why tax justice is a crucial issue for women’s rights and gender equality, focusing on the relationship between taxation and unpaid care, economic inequality, the right to work, access to essential services (e.g. health and education), gender stereotypes and discriminatory social norms.
• Explore with participants how specific human rights standards and mechanisms can be used as operational tools for evaluating and designing just tax policy and practices, with reference to different types of taxes (such as sales or wealth taxes), tax structures (progressive/regressive), and tax abuses.
• Explore some policy alternatives that can better promote women’s rights and gender equality, through case studies and success stories.
• Provide participants with an overview of current global policymaking processes that they can influence in 2015, and equip them with relevant tools to frame advocacy on tax and gender justice (e.g. agreed language, data, and analysis).
• Provide an opportunity for information-sharing, joint strategizing, and networking.

Target audience 

• Activists and advocates working on women’s rights, in particular:
  • Economic justice
  • Right to work
  • Unpaid care work
  • Sexual & reproductive health and rights
  • Access to essential services, including education and health
• Trade unionists
• Media

Language

The workshop will be held in English; regrettably we are not able to offer interpretation services on this occasion.