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Stop Killing Us!: Over 150 days of campaigning to end the needless deaths of sanitation workers

By Campaign, India

“Casteism and untouchability still decide the social structure in the larger part of the country. For them development is just a superficial myth.”

Members of Safai Karmachari Andolan – a movement of people engaged in or formerly engaged in manual scavenging that spans across India, have been campaigning every day for over 150 days. The campaign, called “Stop Killing Us” aims to bring attention to the often ignored, under-reported issue of deaths of sanitation workers who regularly die from exposure to noxious gases in sewers and septic tanks. This work is carried out by people who feel they have no economic alternative. SKA is calling for contractors and municipalities to take responsibility, for governments to make use of machinery compulsory for such work, and for proper rehabilitation and support to be provided for people to transition to dignified livelihoods with living wages. Read more here and follow the ongoing campaign updates on Twitter here (#StopKillingUs).

October 10, 2022
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Policy action needed to tackle discrimination on work and descent in contemporary forms of slavery: South Asia

By India

Modern slavery is the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of people through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation. The victim under modern slavery is, therefore, confronted with threats, violence and abuse of power. Modern slavery occurs in different situations in which a victim is severely exploited for the gain of the perpetrator, either personal or commercial. It can take various forms such as bonded labour/debt bondage, forced labour, forced child labour, sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, domestic servitude and unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers.

‘Discrimination based on work and descent’ (DWD) is the UN terminology for caste discrimination. It affects over 260 million people globally, it has its roots in the centuries-old caste system of India and is prevalent in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Indian diaspora, owing to shared histories, borders and people.

The briefing demonstrates the links between caste-based discrimination and forms of modern slavery in South Asia, including the practice of forced labour in the form of manual scavenging and presents recommendations for policy-makers at various levels. 

Cover page of briefing on comptemporary forms of slavery in South Asia. Image of 3 children hugging.

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September 30, 2022
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Reject the OECD/G20 BEPS Tax Deal of the Rich! UN Tax Convention Now!

By Campaign, Global Inequalities

The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) welcomes the support of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for calls for a UN Tax Convention, recently reiterated by Finance Ministers in Africa and by civil society organizations across the world.  This is a step in the right direction towards fixing the fundamental flaws of the international tax architecture and upholds the rights of Global South countries not only to their tax and fiscal sovereignty, but also to raise revenues and rebuild economies in the face of  multiple crises that have sharpened under the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full press release

September 28, 2022
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Asia Days of Action 2022 – Tax Justice Now for People’s Recovery

By Campaign, Events, Global Inequalities, India

The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, together with its members at the national level across Asia, carried out the Asia Days of Action – “Tax Justice Now for People’s Recovery” from 23 to 24 September 2022 (click here to watch a video summary).

Multisector groups from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan took part in days of action, holding seminars, protest actions, solidarity gatherings and photo actions. The groups stressed the urgency to address policies that severely undermine the capacities of people to prepare for, respond to, survive, recover, and rebuild when crisis or natural disasters strike.

Highlights in India included a workshop bringing together CSOs, domestic workers and migrant workers, a puppet show on unjust tax regimes, poster-making by children, and a ‘Ride for a Fair Tax’ that mobilised domestic workers on bicycle.

In Bangladesh, garment workers protested in front of the National Press Club, demanding an end to VAT.

In Pakistan, the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum organised a rally against injustices in the tax system in Pakistan, and a seminar was held to discuss the need for taxes to work for ordinary people and help deliver public services and much needed relief in light of the floods that struck Pakistan that month.

Click here to read the press release

Click here to watch a video of the Asia Days of Action for Tax Justice 2021

September 26, 2022
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Asia Day of Action calls for “Tax Justice for Genuine People’s Recovery!”

By Campaign, Events, Global Inequalities

This press release coincides with the launch of the Asia Days of Action on Tax Justice, and highlights actions being taken by APMDD’s partners in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.

The statement demands changes and reforms in tax and fiscal systems, asking governments and the UN General Assembly to take action by ending unjust tax burdens on the poor, fairly and sharply taxing the wealth and income of corporations and the elite and ensuring taxes are used to meet people’s basic needs.

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September 23, 2022
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Tax Justice Now, towards Ending Inequalities And Building People’s Recovery and Resilience

By Campaign, Global Inequalities

The multiple crises brought to the fore by the pandemic have widened inequalities that had already been present and worsening before the COVID-19 outbreak. Any serious attempt at ensuring peoples’ recovery and addressing inequalities would require bold and decisive actions that strike at the root causes of inequalities and multiple crises.

This is a second press release published by APMDD during the Asia Days of Action, focused on the role of tax systems in addressing inequalities.

Read the statement

September 23, 2022
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Communities Discriminated on Work & Descent People’s Assembly – September 2022

By Events, India

Virtual side event to the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Communities Discriminated on Work & Descent People’s Assembly builds on the in-person CDWD People’s Assembly (and its outcome declaration) which took place in June, and July’s CDWD UN strategy workshop.

The Global Forum of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (GFoD) organised this side event during the Global People’s Assembly in which NCDHR spoke about the Global Advocacy Plans of the global forum. 

Watch the video

September 22, 2022
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Press Conference – Tax Justice Now, For People’s Recovery

By Events, Global Inequalities

On 15 September 2022, the Tax and Fiscal Justice Asia (TAFJA) network held the press conference “Tax Justice Now, For People’s Recovery” to amplify civil society calls for tax justice, especially addressing governments and the international community as the 77th UN General Assembly meets on 13-27 September 2022.

Tax justice campaigns aim to uphold peoples’ needs and rights amid deepening multiple crises. Today, the scale of the crises has most dramatically worn the face of the peoples of Asia. Tens of thousands of people have fled large parts of Pakistan badly hit by climate emergency-induced flooding. The people of Sri Lanka are suffering hunger and deprivations of basic necessities because of bankruptcy and runaway inflation resulting from “ill-conceived economic reforms like tax cuts and servicing debt payments.”

Other peoples in Asia are equally vulnerable to the impacts of crises but governments ignore peoples’ situation or, worst, resort to intimidation and repression to silence critical voices.

During the press conference, speakers discussed the flaws of tax systems that dominate the region; and the requirements of genuine people’s recovery that are severely hampered by continuing tax abuses and illicit financial flows by the elite and multinational corporations.

Speakers:

● Farooq Tariq, Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee
● Vidya Dinker, Indian Social Action Forum
● Luke Espiritu, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidarity of Filipino Workers)
● Sudhir Shrestha, South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication
● Ah Maftuchan, The Prakarsa (Welfare Initiative for Better Societies)
● Tony Salvador, Third World Network
● Dereje Alemayehu, Global Alliance for Tax Justice
● Jeannie Manipon, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development

Watch the press conference

September 16, 2022
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Tax Justice Now for People’s Recovery!

By Campaign, Global Inequalities

Tax justice groups in Asia are calling for a Day of Action on Tax Justice to be staged on September 23 to demand changes and reforms on taxes and fiscal system with Jeannie Manipon of The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) saying that “national tax systems are biased in favor of MNCs and the elites. We can also see the similar pattern in the international tax system”, emphasizing that a progressive mechanism must be put in place in order to allow the removal of the backwards tax and fiscal system.

In an online press conference organized by the Tax and Fiscal Justice – Asia (TAFJA), the combined and resounding messages of speakers stressed that regressive tax policies exemplified by VAT and GST impact women, workers, farmers and other marginalized sectors the most and severely undermine their capacities to prepare for, respond to, survive recover and rebuild when crisis or natural disasters strike. Regressive tax systems, with their elite and gender biases are legacies of colonialism, part of systems that enable countries of the Global North to extract wealth from the Global South.

Read the full press release.

September 15, 2022
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