This collection on tax abuse, illicit financial flows and the Rights of the Child aims to explore and establish the linkages between tax laws and policies and the protection of child rights and their human development. It brings together evidence for the fundamental need for intergovernmental cooperation with regard to tax policies and the wellbeing of children. The reports set out how governments risk failing their commitment under the Convention on the Rights of Child by pursuing regressive policies and supplying financial secrecy whose harmful impacts spill over into other jurisdictions, potentially violating their extra-territorial human rights obligations.

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations has ‘proclaimed that childhood is entitled to special care and assistance’. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was established in 1990 to clarify and further define what this means and to provide countries with authoritative guidance in meeting their commitments. Obligations stemming from the particular rights of children are set out in a number of UN legal instruments and related institutions, including in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.