Taxation’s redistributional aspect has also been stressed for its positive impact on human rights realisation.182 As one Special Rapporteur noted: ‘[M]any developing countries have experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, although without a proportionate reduction in poverty or inequality, indicating that the benefits of growth have been concentrated in the hands of a few. This is in large part because the proceeds of growth have not been adequately taxed and redistributed, leading to a concentration of wealth that has considerable negative implications for human rights, social cohesion and future economic growth prospects.’183 Even the UN Secretary-General has highlighted the importance of progressive tax policies in addressing inequality and poverty, and recommended that states adopt a combination of progressive income taxes and highly redistributive transfers to decrease income inequality and its impact on social development.184 The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, in his report on inequality and human rights, stressed the detrimental effects of economic inequalities on the exercise of human rights and noted that implementing fiscal policies specifically aimed at reducing inequality should be part of an agenda for tackling inequality.185 He stressed that ‘[a]ppropriate redistributive measures through taxation and other fiscal policies must be seen as an integral part of a commitment to ensuring full respect for human rights across the entire society’.186 Ensuring substantive gender equality For many years, CEDAW has stressed the negative impact some tax structures may have on women and called on states to ensure that their tax systems do not have a discriminatory impact on them.187 Special procedures also stressed certain taxation policies’ gender impact. They largely stressed how some tax structures may discriminate against women, directly or indirectly. The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty has noted that, when tax structures assume women’s income to be supplemental to total household income, it ‘actively disincentives wage-earning and therefore could reduce participation in the labour market by women, potentially threatening 182 The CESCR recommended, eg, that Namibia implement a more redistributive fiscal policy: CESCR, Concluding Observations Namibia (2015) UN Doc E/C.12/NAM/CO/1; see also similar CESCR recommendations to Canada, Honduras and Macedonia; CESCR, Concluding Observations on Honduras (2016) UN Doc E/C.12/HND/CO/2 and CRC, Concluding Observations on Guatemala (2010) UN Doc CRC/C/GTM/CO/3-4. 183 ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona’ (2014) UN Doc A/HRC/26/28, para 40. 184 Report of the Secretary-General, ‘The role of the United Nations in promoting a new global human order and an assessment of the implications of inequality for development’, A/67/394 of 26 September 2012, para 56. 185 ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston’ (Extreme inequality and human rights) (2015) UN Doc A/HRC/29/31. 186 ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston’ (Extreme inequality and human rights) (2015) UN Doc A/HRC/29/31, para 53. 187 See, eg, Concluding Observations Switzerland CEDAW/C/CHE/CO/3 (2009); Concluding Observations Lebanon CEDAW/C/LBN/CO/3 (2014); Concluding Observations Côte d’Ivoire CEDAW/C/CIV/CO/1-3 (2011), para 19. 54 The Obligation to Mobilise Resources: Bridging Human Rights, Sustainable Development Goals, and Economic and Fiscal Policies   December 2017