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	A global financial transaction tax, a human rights imperative now more than ever by Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council   May 2012   As European Union Finance Ministers meet in May to coincide with the G-8 Summit, a group of United Nations independent experts urged the EU to take the lead in promoting the adoption of a global financial transaction tax to offset the costs of the enduring economic, financial, fuel, climate and food crises, and to protect basic human rights.   “Where the world financial crisis has brought about the loss of millions of jobs, socialized private debt burdens and now risks causing significant human rights regressions through wide-ranging austerity packages, a financial transaction tax (FTT) is a pragmatic tool for providing the means for governments to protect and fulfill the human rights of their people,” said the rights experts on extreme poverty, food, business, foreign debt and international solidarity.   “EU countries must take bold leadership now to pave the way towards what should eventually be a global FTT,” they urged, welcoming recent EU proposals to implement the financial transaction tax across the Eurozone.   For the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Magdalena Sepúlveda, “the opportunity should not be wasted; it would fill government deficit holes, but should be channeled to fighting poverty, reversing growing inequality, and compensating those whose lives have been devastated by the enduring global economic crisis.”   “When the financial sector fails to pay its share, the rest of society must pick up the bill,” she said. “It is high-time that governments re-examine the basic redistributive role of taxation to ensure that wealthier individuals and the financial sector contribute their fair share of the tax burden.”   Estimates suggest that at its lowest rate the FTT would yield about $48 billion across the G20, with higher rates offering up to $250 billion dollars per year to offset the costs of the enduring economic, financial, fuel, climate and food crises. Countries such as South Korea have implemented such taxes in non-discriminatory ways to raise significant resources to provide the means to achieve the right to development. It would also help stabilize financial markets by discouraging speculation, mitigating the type of volatility which spawned the 2008 financial and food crises.   “Food prices have twice spiked dangerously over the past five years, and could easily do so again,” warned the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter. “The FTT will likely reduce hot capital flows that fuel speculation, drive price instability and wreak havoc on the right to food worldwide.”   “Governments must act to prevent rights infringements by private financial institutions and build in systems of accountability,” said Margaret Jungk, who currently heads the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. “At a global level, the FTT can discourage excessive risk-taking and speculation, a significant factor in the financial crisis which itself created vast harm to the enjoyment of human rights worldwide.”   “A global FTT is not a silver bullet,” warned the UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and Human Rights, Cephas Lumina, “but it would help relieve sovereign debt load stemming from the financial crisis, shift the burden from ordinary citizens to the private sector which caused the crisis, and significantly enlarge government fiscal space for spending on desperately needed economic and social rights programmes.”   “The FTT is an opportunity for Governments to move beyond rhetoric in their commitments to sustainable development, and to give flesh to their noble pronouncements of solidarity,” said the UN Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity, Virginia Dandan. “Governments can, and must rise to the occasion and work together to make a global FTT possible as a significant step towards reducing the asymmetries that hinder the realization of the right to development.”   “A global consensus on a financial transaction tax would represent an historic decision to prioritize the most disadvantaged and marginalized and be a valuable means of assisting developing countries to meet obligations to ensure the full realization of all economic, social and cultural rights,” concluded the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Ms. Magdalena Sepúlveda. Visit the related web page
	Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights   A new UN report describes the deterioration of the human rights situation in eastern Ukraine, as a result of escalating hostilities between June and August, and the continued disregard for the protection of civilians by both sides of the conflict.   The report, which covers the period from mid-May to mid-August, shows a 66 per cent increase of the number of conflict-related civilian casualties in the east, compared to the previous reporting period. In total, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine documented 188 civilian casualties in eastern Ukraine, including 28 dead and 160 injured, during the three months covered by the report.   By 15 September 2016, OHCHR recorded 9,640 conflict-related deaths and 22,431 injuries among Ukrainian armed forces, civilians and members of the armed groups since the conflict began in mid-April 2014.   “While the situation has improved since the ceasefire was restored on 1 September, the situation along the contact line remains deeply unstable, as demonstrated by the incidents which took place last week-end. In fact there is a real risk that a new outbreak of violence could happen at any time,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.   The report describes how the close proximity of Government forces and armed groups at the contact line has contributed to rising tensions. In addition, the proliferation of arms and the positioning of their fighters and weapons in populated residential areas by both sides have heightened risks and harm to civilians.   While more than half of all civilian casualties recorded in June and July resulted from shelling across the contact line, considerable number of civilians were also killed and injured by mines, explosive remnants of war and booby traps. The number of civilians who died as a result of the secondary effects of violence, including lack of food, water, medicine or healthcare, remains unknown.   The report shows that civilians living in the conflict-affected area are deprived of protection, access to basic services and humanitarian aid, and that their freedom of movement is severely hampered.   UN human rights monitors also found that about 70 per cent of the alleged human rights abuses and violations they documented between mid-May and mid-August involved allegations of torture, ill-treatment and incommunicado detention.   The very limited accountability for these violations and abuses, which have been committed both by the Ukrainian armed forces and law enforcement agencies, and the armed groups in the east, remains a key issue. “Where conflict-related cases have been prosecuted there have been serious concerns about due process and fair trial rights,” says the report.   The report also notes that journalists have been particularly targeted, with reports of harassment and intimidation, leading to self-censorship. “Journalists who have reported on the conflict, or from armed group-controlled areas, have found themselves as targets of online attacks carried out with the tacit consent – and at times declared support – of high-ranking Government officials,” it says, noting that freedom of expression has become a political issue after the recent resignation of the Deputy Information Policy Minister over the unwillingness of Government authorities to investigate abuses against journalists.   The situation of more than 1.7 million people registered as internally displaced people (IDPs) is also a major source of concern. One of key issues lies in the decision by the Ukrainian Government to link the payment of pensions and social entitlements to IDPs to their registration and the verification of their place of residence. This has negatively impacted some 500,000 to 600,000 IDPs in eastern Ukraine. Cases of discrimination against IDPs in accessing employment, accommodation or banking services based on their place of origin have also been documented.   The report also highlights the gradual deterioration of the human rights situation and regression of fundamental freedoms in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the status of which is prescribed by UN GA res 68/262. With the increasing integration into the Russian Federation, there is a lack of accountability and redress for victims of human rights abuses, in particular detainees. The right to peaceful assembly has also been further curtailed by the de facto authorities and people continue to be interrogated and harassed by law enforcement agents for expressing views that are considered to be extremist.   “The escalation of hostilities along the contact line over the summer was a sharp reminder that the situation in eastern Ukraine deserves much more attention. Additional efforts are needed to find a lasting solution to this crisis and put an end the suffering of the civilian population. Human rights and justice are what people need, not further deaths and more intense hatred and destruction,” the High Commissioner said.   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.   * Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine: http://bit.ly/2cYVRMP Visit the related web page
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