One of the UN Special Rapporteurs made a call for inputs, on views on the development of a human rights-based economy, and how public taxation can play a role in this. I put in a submission, responses are copied below for interest, including some thoughts in relation to museums and cultural institutions. If you’re interested in how museums relate to human rights see this free guide I put together in 2020:
In terms of the fiscal social contract, cultural rights and cultural institutions (such as museums) and their roles in a human rights economy, the current UK context is of: (1) declines in public funding and creeping marketisation of cultural institutions that erodes a rights-based approach to culture and/or cultural participation, (2) lack of a coherent national strategy for where cultural institutions should be or are needed (how many are ‘enough’ or ‘sufficient’), (3) ‘offshoring’ of rights-based responsibilities as many museums are effectively semi-privatised to charitable trusts and/or at arm’s-length from governments who don’t fulfil their responsibilities, and (4) the rise of populist politics, in the UK and elsewhere.
- What role taxation plays in the fiscal social contract.
In a fair, effective system, taxation helps governments secure funding to fulfil their responsibilities under a range of international agreements and national laws, for their citizens and to provide support for other countries. Notably, taxation should provide social protection for those most in need of support. More local taxes, such as Council Tax in the UK, are used by local authorities to pay for services they provide. The interaction between national and more local taxation is a source of tension, as national governments provide a significant part of local authority funding, while local authorities plug gaps through local taxation.
2. What is your understanding of a human rights economy?
The context of a human rights economy, is that the current economic system is failing people and planet. Even in the Sustainable Development Goals, a fixation on ‘growth’ is not working for a sustainable future. A human rights economy has been set out by OHCHR:
“[A] Human Rights Economy places people and the planet at the heart of economic policies, investment decisions, consumer choices, and business models, with the goal of measurably enhancing the enjoyment of human rights for all.
A human rights economy seeks to redress root causes and structural barriers to equality, justice, and sustainability, by prioritizing investment in economic, social and cultural rights with a focus on those most marginalized. It addresses power imbalances between persons, among people, business and public institutions, as well as between countries, including the role of international financial institutions there.
A human rights economy aligns economies with States’ obligations under human rights, by positioning human rights norms and standards as guardrails for fiscal policy, including in relation to debt policies.”[1]
A Human Rights Economy could be said to be measured through the value that goods and services provide in (1) Respecting human rights, (2) Protecting human rights, notably from commercial interests and lobbyists whose activities are counter to human rights, and (3) Fulfilling human rights, notably for those currently most disenfranchised in society, and across the world. A Human Rights Economy would be built around sustainable development principles of mutual support and concern through reinvigorated multilateralism, free from marketisation of support (‘aid for trade’ or neocolonialism).
3. How does the tax system and policies impact the strength and effectiveness of the fiscal social contract?…
In recent years, taxation, for example in the UK, is seemingly not abiding by a social contract, in that rises in taxes are happening at the same time as public services (including healthcare, public transport, and museums) and general living standards are declining.[2] High interest rates and inflation, and high energy prices and a general cost-of-living crisis, were a dominant feature of UK popular discourse from 2022 onwards. Meanwhile, there were a number of high-profile examples that highlight general unfairness, for example low taxation of wealthy ‘Non-Doms’, low tax for fossil fuel companies, and the UK government seemingly more willing to tax households than wealthy individuals and large companies. Financial secrecy, for example in tax havens, is a feature of former colonies that are partly administered by the UK (contributing to a relatively low score for SDG 17 in the SDG Index)[3]; these tax havens provide a serious impediment to effective collection and distribution of taxes, while wealthy individuals (including senior politicians) make use of complex financial agreements to retain huge wealth.[4] In summary, tax evasion and avoidance, notably by wealthy individuals and companies, and including politicians, erodes public trust in politics, and possibly in the general fairness of society. Closure, privatisation and marketisation of public spaces; project-based funding for cultural activity; and crackdowns on protest further erode public opportunities to communicate dissatisfaction or to demand justice.
4. What are the main factors that influence the population’s perceptions and expectations regarding their tax obligations and the government’s role in providing public goods and services?…
Erosion of public trust with high profile individuals paying less tax than an ordinary citizen, are clearly unfair. Taxation should lead to palpable results for those paying taxes, and there should be a general fairness so that wealthy individuals and companies pay their fair share. Those in damaging industries, including fossil fuels, and in the UK water companies, should be taxed, and fined when they breach their responsibilities, under the well-established ‘polluter pays’ principle. This is far removed from what is currently happening in the UK.
5. What mechanisms and practices exist to ensure transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in the collection and allocation of public funds?…
Private prosecutions, for example by the Good Law Project, have provided a vehicle for those who feel disenfranchised by the political system to contribute to legal challenges.[5] However, these are in the face of widespread political secrecy, for example around funding decisions during the COVID pandemic.
6. What are the economic and social outcomes associated with the fiscal social contract?…
The Nordic model, of high taxes and high-quality public services, is a well-known example that seems related to a high level of democracy, although there are signs that this model is under threat from populists.
7. What challenges and opportunities exist for strengthening the fiscal social contract in the context of globalization and technological advancements?…
Powerful vested interests, notably fossil fuel companies and multinationals (notably where they now own public services, such as water and energy companies), coupled with populist and/or neoliberal governments that are committed to low taxation, are a massive challenge to a strong fiscal social contract. They will actively undermine it, so that companies pay in return for political support for their positions. Also, populist and authoritarian political positions simultaneously undermine people’s rights to protest and seek justice, at the same time as they make sweeping changes that undermine people’s rights and futures.
8. How does the fiscal social contract and a human rights economy intersect and how these concepts can complement and reinforce each other.
People and sectors are often unaware of governments’ commitments through human rights agreements, such as the UDHR, ICCPR and ICESCR. A human rights economy, like a rights-based approach, would be based around these agreements, and so both raise awareness of them, and empower both people, communities, and authorities to secure human rights for more people.
9. From a policy and legal perspective, what are the financial responsibility of a state as regards human rights and tax allocation. In this context, how the state obligations to immediate and progressive realization of human rights can be assessed?
Public taxes should at least be used to empower more people to enjoy their human rights, recalling that they are universal and inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and inter-related, and drawing on International Human Rights Law and local laws. Governance of taxation could provide a guide, in terms of ensuring that it is ‘good’ (complies with responsibilities from agreements), ‘effective’ (provides meaningful results) and ‘equitable’ (builds a fairer society). Public taxes should be used to promote and not undermine human rights, in the home country and more widely.
10. According to you, how a human rights-based economy integrates environmental sustainability into economic activities?
The common sustainability paradigm, whereby society, environment and economy are placed on an equal footing, is problematic. An economy is a means, not an end.[6] Respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights, and protecting and restoring the natural environment, are the goals, actions and intended outcomes of a rights-based and environment-respecting system. It is worth emphasising that the natural environment cannot be considered separately from human rights, with the recognition of the universal right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and that the current economic system is heavily biased to the over-exploitation and destruction of the natural environment.
11. From your perspective, does debt and international financial obligations impede or support the realization of human rights?
Widespread ignorance of historical connections between countries impedes political, public and financial support for other countries. Debt replaced colonialism in many cases, and neocolonialism is again rampant, for example for minerals in Africa for the ‘green transition’. State debt is a curse for Global South countries that seriously impedes the right to development, and the rights of people generally, and is an affront to long histories of exploitation by Global North countries, and now by many companies based there.
12. In the case of developing countries, where the challenge of climate change, poverty eradication, and basic services are at stake, how can green growth offer economic and investment opportunities and in the same time improve environmental and social quality?…
The answer here depends on what is meant by ‘green growth’. Just as endless (sustained) growth is not possible, endless ‘green growth’ is not possible. ‘Green growth’ can be greenwashed capitalism at worst. Green growth often uses GDP as a measure of activity, which continues to be problematic, and is not based on either building natural or human capital. It is still based on flows, rather than stocks.
13. Please provide any other information, documents or background materials that may be relevant for the concept of social fiscal contract and the questions above.
A human rights economy should be sure to place people and nature at the centre of concerns, and not be a ‘tweak’ of the current, destructive economic system. Moving away from ‘growth’ as a measure in any sense, should be a priority. Peace, justice, dignity, environmental protection and restoration, could be the basis for metrics of ‘progress’.
Shifting attention to focus on the stocks of capitals in society (eg. human, social, natural, built capitals), and on rights-based approaches and capability development, may inform a human rights economy. UN reform of the role of growth in its model for sustainable development will be necessary for the post-2030 Agenda.
For information on how museums and cultural institutions relate to human rights, and can support a rights-based approach, see Museums and Human Rights (2020).
[1] https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2023-11/ohchr_observer_paper_fina.pdf
[2] https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/the-living-standards-outlook-2023/
[3] https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/map/goals/SDG17
[4] https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/rishi-sunak-could-become-pm-heres-what-he-doesnt-want-you-to-know/
[5] https://goodlawproject.org/petition/hmrc-close-the-600m-tax-loophole/
[6] See also Holden, E., Linnerud, K., Banister, D., Schwanitz, V., & Wierling, A. (2017). The Imperatives of Sustainable Development: Needs, Justice, Limits. Routledge.
Curating Tomorrow, Henry McGhie 