INSTITUTE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
LORETO GENERALATE

NGO Associated With ECOSOC At The United Nations
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Search

2024 Social Forum of the UN Human Rights Council

UNHR Social Forum Website Page

The 2024 Social Forum of the United Nations Human Rights Council was held from 31 October – 01 November at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Three members of the IBVM Spain Province delegates attended on our behalf, Marta Santos, their current UN Province Representative, Cecilia O’Dwyer ibvm, the previous NGO Representative at the UN and Maria Llinas, the current Director of Fundacion Kambia. We thank them for attending and delivering an intervention on our behalf.

The Social Forum is an annual meeting organized by the Human Rights Council as a unique space for open and interactive dialogue between civil society, representatives of Member States, and intergovernmental organizations. The theme chosen by the Council this year focused on the contribution of financing for development to the advancement of all human rights for all in preparation for the 4th Financing for Development Conference happening in late June – early July 2025.

The forum discussed issues relating to the challenges and inequalities of the current international financial and trade systems from a human rights lens. The Council published their key recommendations “Integrating Human Rights into the International Financial Architecture Reforms” calling on Member States to “put human rights at the heart of the international financial, debt and tax architecture.” The programme of work featured Panels of experts on key issues such as:

• International Development Cooperation
• International Trade as an Engine of Development
• Debt and Debt Sustainability
• Domestic Resource Mobilization
• Domestic and International Private Business and Finance

Marta delivered an intervention (oral Statement) in Spanish at Interactive Dialogues on International Development Cooperation and Domestic Resource Mobilization. Our focus remains on the inability of nations, especially the global south to progress on the SDGs due to the international system that limits their ability to raise domestic resources through fair taxation and access to a fair international financial system. The summaries of our advocacy calls are below:

International Development Cooperation:
We call on a UN Convention on International Development Cooperation that would:
• Endow the UN Development Cooperation Forum with the authority to set norms and rules on the use and flow for development cooperation and democratise the governance of the International Development Cooperation (IDC).
• Reformulate the narrative surrounding IDC from one of charity to one of justice and reparations, recognising and addressing historical injustices.
• Establish the UN target of 0.7% of GDP as a floor for the amount of aid, while recognising the trillions in unfulfilled aid and ODA commitments as a debt to the Global South.
• Ensure universalisation of development effectiveness principles.
• Focus ODA on poverty eradication and the fight against inequality, reversing the current diversion of such aid.

Domestic Resource Mobilization:
We believe that a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (FCTC) is a key opportunity to create a fairer and more inclusive global tax system that helps all countries, particularly developing countries, to mobilise domestic public resources.
We call on UN member states to:
• Support the Terms of Reference for negotiating a new Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation and to engage constructively in that negotiation.
• Reaffirm their commitment to ‘progressive tax systems’, in line with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), taking into account gender issues and seeking to redress imbalances affecting developing countries.
• Align public policies with the SDGs and promote investments that drive sustainable development and reduce inequalities.
• Enable the participation of civil society organisations in political and economic processes, favouring the development of inclusive and quality institutions that ensure sustained and equitable economic development.

Read the full Oral Statements in English and Spanish below:
International Development Cooperation
Domestic Resource Mobilization

en_AU