🏛️ Tax Cooperation
Our Submissions & Interventions at the UN Tax Negotiating Committee — Driving Justice, Climate Action, and Financial Integrity in Global Tax Policy
During the sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, our delegations actively led advocacy to ensure the future convention serves as an instrument for human rights, environmental sustainability, and economic justice.
Below are the published policy briefs submitted to the UN Secretariat, alongside the core plenary interventions delivered throughout the negotiations.
Published Submissions & Policy Briefs
We spearheaded two comprehensive policy submissions to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, bridging critical gaps between international taxation, environmental sustainability, and security.
1. Integrating Climate Imperatives into the UN Tax Convention
Authors & Consortium: Co-authored by Ágora Lab alongside a global consortium including SAHRiNGON Tanzania Chapter, MEAV Guatemala, YOUNGO (UNFCCC Youth Constituency), Centre for Economic Governance in Kenya, DMUN Foundation, and partners.
First Edition: October 2025
Core Focus: Investigates how foundational climate principles—including Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR), the Polluter Pays Principle, and Climate Justice—can be embedded into the Convention's primary text and its early protocols.
2. Advancing Drug Policy Reform & Countering Illicit Financial Flows
Author: Submitted by Ágora
Core Focus: Aligns the UN Common Position on Drug Policy (UNCPDP) with global tax governance to disrupt illicit financial flows (IFFs) from transnational organized crime and fund licit development alternatives.
Key Recommendations — Climate & Tax
- Carbon-Intensity Metrics: Embed carbon-intensity metrics and environmental footprints into new nexus rules for taxing cross-border services
- Green Fiscal Space: Protect and expand "green fiscal space" for developing countries while preventing carbon leakage
- Climate Finance Channeling: Channel international tax levies from carbon-intensive activities into UN climate finance mechanisms (such as the Adaptation Fund and Loss & Damage)
- Dispute Resolution: Establish specialized multi-disciplinary dispute resolution panels to handle environmental and carbon-tax conflicts
Key Recommendations — Drug Policy & IFFs
- Beneficial Ownership Transparency: Mandate public beneficial ownership transparency registers to trace hidden assets and money laundering schemes
- Alternative Development Incentives: Create targeted tax incentives (e.g., reduced withholding tax rates) for cross-border investments in certified Alternative Development (AD) zones
- Asset Recovery Panel: Establish an Asset Recovery and Repatriation Panel (ARRP) under Workstream III to enable non-conviction-based seizure and equitable return of seized illicit assets back to victim nations for public health and development
Embedded Floor Interventions & Key Advocacy Pillars
During the live negotiating workstreams, our floor interventions focused on four indispensable structural pillars:
1. Promoting Civil Society Engagement
Demanded structured, democratic observer mechanisms and hybrid participation tools within the Convention to ensure non-governmental organizations and civil society experts—particularly from the Global South—have a permanent seat at the negotiating table.
2. Tackling Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) & Organized Crime
Called for binding rules on beneficial ownership transparency, joint forensic tax audits, and the tracking of shadow profits. Urged the UN to treat counter-IFF measures as essential to reclaiming sovereign domestic resources.
3. Special Provisions for Official Development Assistance (ODA) Funds
Urged the inclusion of targeted safeguards within tax treaty rules to protect ODA transfers and international aid allocations from burdensome local taxation or administrative friction, ensuring maximum impact for recipient communities.
4. Defining Institutional Roles for the World Bank & IMF
Emphasized that while International Financial Institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank and IMF provide analytical and technical support, global tax standard-setting must remain anchored in the sovereign-led, democratic framework of the United Nations.
Official Interventions Library
Audio recordings and official UN transcripts of our plenary interventions delivered during the INC sessions are available through the UN documentation system.