"Tax Havens Are A Global Shame. Now Is The Time To Put An End To Them", 27 Sep 2016

For the first time in history, there is enough wealth to lift everyone out of poverty. Yet hundreds of millions of people across the world still go to bed hungry, not due to a lack of resources, but because of vast inequality caused by perverse economic systems...A rapidly growing global web of tax havens is one of the key drivers of this inequality, allowing some of the world’s super rich to pay no taxes or far less than they should...Systematic tax evasion from rich individuals and companies denies vital tax resources to governments in wealthy nations that could be used to invest in public services...[T]he effects are even more harmful to developing nations in urgent need of resources to secure the basic needs of their people; which is why tax evasion is a pressing human rights issue...Tax secrecy fosters corruption and benefits those engaging in other illegal activities...No one country can tackle this complex, secretive global financial conspiracy alone. Coordinated and comprehensive global action is needed...We need to scrap tax havens altogether...And that is why at the UN General Assembly last week, Ecuador launched a new call for the creation of a UN body capable of calling time on this scandal...