A/HRC/28/60 24. A comprehensive report published in October 2013 by the International Bar Association underscored the linkages between illicit financial flows, poverty and human rights. The report found that tax abuses have considerable negative impacts on the enjoyment of human rights. Simply put, tax abuses deprive governments of the resources required to provide the programmes that give effect to economic, social and cultural rights, and to create and strengthen the institutions that uphold civil and political rights. Actions of States that encourage or facilitate tax abuses, or that deliberately frustrate the efforts of other States to counter tax abuses, could constitute a violation of their international human rights obligations, particularly with respect to economic, social and cultural rights.20 25. This link has also been stressed by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who recently stated that tax abuse is not a victimless practice; it limits resources that could be spent on reducing poverty and realizing human rights, and perpetuates vast income inequality. While the rich benefit from this practice, the poor feel the negative impact on their standard of living, their unequal political power and the inferior quality of health and education services for themselves and their children. (A/HRC/26/28, para. 59) 26. The Special Rapporteur emphasized that high levels of tax abuse undermine the principles of equality and non-discrimination, given that evaders end up paying less than taxpayers with the same— or less— capacity to pay. High net-worth individuals and large corporations also have a far greater ability to evade or avoid taxes as they are able to pay tax advisers or able to open undeclared foreign bank accounts in low-tax jurisdictions. Governments then have to raise revenue from other sources: often regressive taxes, the burden of which falls hardest on the poor. Therefore, if States do not tackle tax abuse, they are likely to be disproportionately benefiting wealthy individuals to the detriment of the most disadvantaged (ibid., para. 60). 27. The negative impact on social and economic rights can be illustrated by analysing how illicit financial flows have contributed to undermining efforts of governments in subSaharan States to realize progressively the right to health, as enshrined in article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. A recent study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine has estimated the impact of illicit financial outflows on the ability of sub-Saharan States to realize Millennium Development Goal 4, relating to the right to health. The three indicators for Goal 4 are: (1) Under-five mortality rate, (2) Infant mortality rate and (3) Proportion of 1 year-old children immunized against measles. The study analysed data for 34 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The results speak for themselves: at the current rate of progress it is estimated that only six of the 34 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa would reach their Millennium Development Goal targets by the end of 2015. If illicit financial outflows were completely curtailed, that number could be increased to 16 countries. Even those countries that would not achieve their targets by 2015 would be able to reach them in a substantially shorter period in the absence of illicit financial flows.21 20 21 10 International Bar Association, ”Tax abuses, poverty and human rights: a report of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute Task Force on Illicit Financial Flows, Poverty and Human Rights” (London, 2013), p. 2. Bernadette O’Hare et al., “The effect of illicit financial flows on time to reach the fourth Millennium Development Goal in Sub-Saharan Africa: a quantitative analysis” in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 107, No. 4, 2014; available from http://jrs.sagepub.com/content/107/4/148.short.