Tax justice, women and UN human rights conventions: our April 2018 podcast

In this month’s Taxcast: Tax justice, women and UN human rights conventions: how we may be beginning to hold governments to account. Also:

• we discuss scandal-hit Facebook’s checks on whether overseas influencers are funding political ads in the United States and why they won’t work. And is it time for a new model? How Mark Zuckerberg could become a hero.
• Norway does the responsible thing and decides not to invest its sovereign wealth fund in private equity.
• And India’s decade-long battle to collect back taxes from Vodafone runs into potential conflicts of interest at the highest political levels.

Produced and presented by Naomi Fowler, featuring Liz Nelson and John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network and lawyers and members of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Patricia Schulz and Marion Bethel.

Tax justice and women’s rights in CEDAW committee hearings:

I think it has come as a surprise for a number of countries with whom we have tackled those fairly new issues. I don’t think that any government a few years ago would have thought that they would be asked questions on such issues.”

Lawyer and CEDAW committee member Patricia Schulz

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Further reading:

The Daphne Project, continuing the work of Malta’s hero and investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who was murdered just over six months ago. The project is coordinated by Forbidden Stories www.forbiddenstories.org

PwC’s Facebook privacy audit: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/21/facebook_privacy_audit_finds_everything_is_awesome/

Facebook shifts 1.5bn users out of reach of new European privacy law https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/19/facebook-moves-15bn-users-out-of-reach-of-new-european-privacy-law

HSBC whistleblower Herve Falciani’s re-arrest in Madrid: http://www.dw.com/en/spain-considers-swiss-extradition-bid-for-hsbc-data-whistleblower-herve-falciani/a-43271648

Why we can’t afford the rich: new research in Australia calculates tax concessions for the wealthy have reached $68 billion a year: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tax-concessions-for-wealthy-reach-68-billion-analysis-finds-20180325-p4z65u.html

The report by Anglicare ‘The Cost of Privilege’ calculates the cost of Australia’s wealthiest at $37 a week for each worker: http://www.anglicare.asn.au/news-and-media/latest-news/2018/03/25/landmark-report-on-the-cost-of-privilege-shows-our-tax-system-is-unfair

South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters are keeping an eye on the ban on KPMG auditing public institutions: https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/prima-facie-evidence-for-criminal-prosecution-against-kpmg-eff-14508153