state’s ability to raise public revenues, and increased the ways and means that companies and individuals can use to evade and avoid taxes’.312 States’ extraterritorial obligations are particularly relevant in regard to certain states’ tax practices (eg, financial secrecy legislation, tax havens and low-tax jurisdictions) as well as to transnational corporations’ abusive practices such as corporate profit shifting (see section 4.4 above). Some special procedures and treaty bodies have noted that one state’s tax practices may undermine another state’s ability to mobilise maximum available resources for the progressive realisation of economic, social and cultural rights.313 This is the case, for example, when a state provides excessive protection to bank secrecy. As the Independent Expert on foreign debt explains, jurisdictions with high levels of financial secrecy combined with low tax rates become ideal locations for high-net-worth individuals, as well as transnational corporations to shelter funds.314 Treaty bodies and special procedures have stressed that providing excessive protection to bank secrecy and allowing permissive corporate tax rules may affect the ability of states where economic activities are taking place to meet their obligation to mobilise maximum available resources.315 The CEDAW’s efforts are noteworthy in this area. In 2016, after examining Switzerland’s report, it concluded that Swiss financial secrecy policies and lax rules on corporate reporting and taxation jeopardised women’s rights overseas.316 In its assessment, the CEDAW expressed concern that ‘the State Party’s financial secrecy policies and rules on corporate reporting and taxation have a potentially negative impact on the ability of other states, particularly those already short of revenue, to mobilise the maximum available resources for the fulfilment of women’s rights’.317 Consequently, the CEDAW urged Switzerland to honour its international human rights obligations by ‘undertaking independent, participatory and periodic impact assessments of the extraterritorial effects of its financial secrecy and corporate tax policies on women’s rights and substantive equality, and ensure that such assessments are conducted in an impartial manner with public disclosure of the methodology and findings’. By holding Switzerland accountable for eroding other countries’ tax bases, the CEDAW made a groundbreaking step on various fronts. It addressed how powerful, high-income state behaviour might impact people living in other countries. It suggested that obstructing other countries from strengthening domestic resource mobilisation might be inconsistent with international human rights standards. Finally, the case also shows how, by joining forces, civil society organisations can adopt the 312 ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona’ (2014) UN Doc A/HRC/26/28, para 75. 313 CESCR General Comment No 24, para 37; ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona’ (2014) UN Doc A/HRC/26/28, para 32. See also ‘Independent Expert on international order, Alfred-Maurice de Zayas’ (2016) UN Doc A/71/286, para 6. 314 ‘Report of the Independent Expert on foreign debt, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky’ (2016) A/HRC/31/61, para 9. 315 CESCR General Comment No 24, para 37; ‘Report of the Independent Expert on foreign debt, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky’ (2016) A/HRC/31/61; ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona’ (2014) UN Doc A/HRC/26/28. 316 The Committee was encouraged by a submission that the Center for Economic and Social Rights, Alliance Sud, the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law, Public Eye and the Tax Justice Network presented with regard to Swiss responsibility for extraterritorial impacts of tax abuse on women’s rights, 2 November 2016, available at http://cesr.org/ sites/default/files/downloads/Switzerland_CEDAW_Submission_TaxFinance_1mar2016.pdf accessed 20 October 2017. 317 Concluding Observations Switzerland CEDAW/C/CHE/CO/4-5, 18 November 2016. December 2017   The Obligation to Mobilise Resources: Bridging Human Rights, Sustainable Development Goals, and Economic and Fiscal Policies 79