Tax Justice stakeholders meet to address Illicit Financial Flows through Public Interest Litigation

Public interest litigation stakeholders, civil society organisations, tax professionals and government agencies are set to convene in Nairobi, Kenya, from the 3rd to the 4th of October to discuss how issues of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) can be tackled through Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The meeting is expected to build capacity for potential stakeholders on new PIL cases to strengthen the fight against IFFs in Africa.

This meeting follows the June 2022 meeting that TJNA held under the theme ‘Using Public Interest Litigation to Curb Illicit Financial Flows and Tax Injustice’ in Nairobi, Kenya. An outcome of this meeting was the need to develop a strategy to document, support and harmonise efforts among the various petitioners across the continent and to develop a “best approach” that can serve as a blueprint for new and ongoing cases.

IFFs cost the African continent US$88.6 billion or 3.7 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) annually, according to (UNCTAD 2020). These flows originate from sources such as revenues from illegal activities, tax avoidance and evasion, abusive profit-shifting, trade mis-invoicing and transfer pricing, and corruption.  IFFs divert resources from social development and hinder financing development in Africa by undermining domestic resource mobilisation efforts. As a result, governments are unable to provide the basic necessities required for citizens to develop and contribute effectively to economic growth.

This has led to a systematic revocation of human and economic rights despite the fact that most African constitutions guarantee the preservation of human rights and in many instances economic rights are justiciable. Making governments account for their inability or unwillingness to provide basic services is always a difficult task and, in some instances, risky depending on the protection of civil liberties and resources available to public interest groups.

The use of court action to pursue the goals of social justice has increasingly become a mechanism for pursuing the goals of social justice and enhanced democratic constitutionalism. There have been an increasing number of PIL cases in Africa in the context of socio-economic justice and human rights. PIL is an important tool for the advocacy of socio-economic justice and the development of policies that adequately address the factors that underpin tax injustice and IFFs.

At the end of the two-day meeting, the participants are expected to validate the draft PIL toolkit and strategise on potential areas of PIL collectively.

For more details on the meeting and your participation, please contact [email protected].

Image courtesy: The Standard